Gender equality and a rights-based approach to tax reform

Abstract

This chapter applies a human rights framework to gender inequality in tax policy. Gender inequality in economic reform is a global issue. In its recent report, Progress of the World’s Women (the UN Report), UN (United Nations) Women applies international human rights standards to assess laws and policies for substantive gender equality (UN Women 2015). The UN Report confirms that women’s rights cannot and should not be separated from general principles of social and economic justice, and macro-economic and fiscal policy should not be designed in isolation from a human rights agenda; on the contrary, human rights should be one of the drivers of economic reform (UN Women 2015, p. 26).