Illicit Financial Flows and Least Developed Countries: A Pro-Poor Approach Towards Tax Transparency

International rules that promote the easy movement of money across borders have long been justified by narratives of continually falling global poverty. That trend was reversed in 2020 as the number of people in extreme poverty, principally Africans, began to rise for the first time in decades. At the core of this tragedy are Africa’s thirty-three Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which have been unable to collect sufficient taxes as a percentage of national incomes to discharge their human rights obligations towards large proportions of their populations that live in poverty. The bleeding of Africa’s resources through illicit financial flows (IFFs), estimated to exceed total combined inflows of foreign aid and direct investment, is a paradigm international human rights law and international development issue. Yet the abilities of African LDCs to administer their progressive tax laws against those who transfer income, capital and the proceeds of trade offshore are hampered by their marginalisation from existing international tax transparency frameworks. To promote the international cooperation and assistance needed to significantly reduce tax-related IFFs from African LDCs, this thesis focuses attention on the political framework of the 2030 Agenda and its commitments to eradicate extreme poverty, strengthen domestic resource mobilisation, and reduce IFFs. Informed by a progressive understanding of the extraterritorial human rights obligations of states that sell and trade in offshore financial secrecy, this research advances a UN-led pro-poor approach towards tax transparency that is aligned with existing OECD designed legal and administrative frameworks. The key elements of this pro-poor approach involve enhanced reporting requirements for offshore wealth management professionals, a UN appointed global panel of tax experts, and a global transparency register