Rashmi Hamal is a local heroine who helped to save her friend from an early marriage. She campaigns actively against child marriages in the Far Western Region of Nepal. Credit: Naresh Newar/IPS
Women’s unpaid labor is worth $10,900,000,000,000Gus Wezerek and Kristen R. GhodseeNew York Times March 5, 2020 Imagine you had a bucket big enough to hold all the money made in 2018 by the 50 biggest companies in the world. The $10.9 trillion that women didn’t earn would more than fill it.
Freedom House March 4, 2020. Despite mass protests in every region, world suffers 14th consecutive year of deterioration in political rights and civil liberties.
Democracy is under assault around the globe, and the effects are evident not just in authoritarian states like China, Russia, and Iran, but also in countries with a long track record of upholding basic rights and freedoms. While protest movements in every region have illustrated widespread popular demand for better governance, they have yet to reverse the overall pattern of declining freedom, according to Freedom in the World 2020, the latest edition of the annual country-by-country assessment of political rights and civil liberties, released today by Freedom House.
Countries that suffered setbacks in
2019 outnumbered those making gains by nearly two to one, marking the
14th consecutive year of deterioration in global freedom. During this
period, 25 of the world’s 41 established democracies experienced net
losses.
The report also found an alarming
global erosion in governments’ commitment to pluralism, a defining
feature of liberal democracy. Ethnic, religious, and other minority
groups have borne the brunt of recent state abuses in both democracies
and authoritarian countries. Left unchecked, such violations threaten
the freedom of entire societies.
Uganda releases opposition leader after clashes kill at least 28Abdi Latif DahirNew York Times November 20, 2020 Two days after police took him into custody, presidential contender Bobi Wine resurfaced on Friday in court where he was charged with flouting coronavirus rules and released.
‘Now, we fight face to face’: Thailand’s protests shatter taboosHannah Beech and Ryn JirenuwatNew York Times November 18, 2020 Antigovernment demonstrations have grown bolder, even insulting the king, but reform remains elusive and fears of a crackdown persist.
Why Nigeria is now eruptingRick Gladstone and Megan SpeciaNew York Times October 21, 2020 Africa’s most populous country and biggest oil producer has been convulsed by protests that started with anger over police brutality and have now broadened, drawing worldwide attention.
Salvadorans walk past a mural of Salvadoran martyrs Aug. 15, 2020, outside Our Lady of Pilar Catholic Church in Zaragoza, El Salvador. The mural includes four U.S. churchwomen slain in El Salvador in 1980; some Catholics in the country consider them part of a long list of Salvadoran saints and martyrs. (CNS/Courtesy Patricia Lazo)
Bolivia under blockade as protesters choke access to citiesMaría Silvia Trigo and Anatoly KurmanaevNew York Times August 7, 2020 Six million people have been marooned by 70 roadblocks set up to protest the government’s response to the coronavirus and the postponement of the country’s general election.
Thich Quang Do, defiant rights champion in Vietnam, dies at 91Seth MydansNew York Times February 24, 2020 As the patriarch of a banned Buddhist church, he endured prison, house arrest and internal exile but refused to bend to the Communist authorities.
The Financial Secrecy Index ranks jurisdictions according to their secrecy and the scale of their offshore financial activities. A politically neutral ranking, it is a tool for understanding global financial secrecy, tax havens or secrecy jurisdictions, and illicit financial flows or capital flight.
The Financial Secrecy Index complements our Corporate Tax Haven Index, which ranks the world’s most important tax havens for multinational companies.
Shining light into dark places
An estimated US$21 to $32 trillion
of private financial wealth is located, untaxed or lightly taxed, in
secrecy jurisdictions around the world. Secrecy jurisdictions – a term
we often use as
an alternative to the more widely used term tax havens – use secrecy to
attract illicit and illegitimate or abusive financial flows.
Illicit cross-border financial flows have been estimated at US$1-1.6 trillion per year, dwarfing the US$135 billion or so in global foreign aid. Since the 1970s, African countries alone have lost over US$1 trillion in capital flight, while combined external debts are less than US$200 billion. So Africa is a major net creditor to the world – but its assets are in the hands of a wealthy elite, protected by offshore secrecy; while its debts are shouldered by broad African populations.
