On March 6 and 7, Feminist Legal Studies Queen’s (FLSQ) will host the conference “Women and Tax Justice at Beijing+20: Taxing and Budgeting for Sex Equality.” The event will bring to campus scholars and legal practitioners from across Canada and around the world to discuss and tax and spending laws that are undermining sex equality and how to ensure governments change these laws.

Twenty years ago following the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, an unprecedented number of governments world-wide made commitments to implement a gender-based impact analysis of all existing and proposed programs identified in the resulting Platform for Action. Today, major international efforts to advance human development and human rights are converging with intensifying efforts to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals by year-end and the finalizing of the post-2015 development agenda and sustainable development goals to be used as a future global roadmap.

The growing reliance since 1995 on tax cuts to stimulate growth, recessions and austerity budgets – all measures that have undercut the women’s movement toward economic and social equality – is the reason why FLSQ co-directors Professors Kathleen Lahey and Bita Amani set this year’s conference theme.

“Cuts to progressive taxes like personal and corporate income taxes have left heavier burdens of consumption taxation on women, particularly those in poverty and Indigenous populations,” says Lahey, who received a $25,000 research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for her outstanding work in the field. “And then, reduced tax revenues are used to justify cutting public services, employment, and overseas aid. At the same time, generous tax cuts, investment incentives, and corporate exploitation of offshore and tax haven regimes have enabled those with the highest incomes to increase their shares of wealth.”

Attiya Waris, a senior lecturer with the University of Nairobi who specializes in tax law, poverty alleviation and human rights, is the keynote speaker for the FLSQ event. She will present a talk on “Rights of Women and Taxation: Developing Country Perspectives.” Panelists will discuss issues such as global value chains, gender budgeting, and gender development and equality challenges.

The conference is funded by Professor Lahey’s SSHRC grant and sponsors FLSQ, Women for Tax Justice, FemTax International, Canadians for Tax Fairness, Queen’s Law, and the Queen's University Principal's Development Fund International Visiting Scholar Program.

To register for the two-day event that will be held in Robert Sutherland Hall, Room 202, contact Melissa Howlett. There is no registration fee, however, donations are encouraged from those who can afford to do so. Receipts will be issued for a charitable contribution tax credit.

For more information, see the Conference Program at the FLSQ website.