60th Anniversary of Amnesty International

               This month the world's largest NGO for human rights, Amnesty International completed 60 years. So this post is a tribute to them. We all must to work to strengthen the human rights, democracy and justice and I hope all human rights defenders understand the importance to share each other work, messages and stories, creating a large net of information about violations happening and possible risks to human rights defenders. If we all want a fairer and more democratic world, we all should become a human rights defender. Professionals defenders like those from Amnesty should have more power to make their claims. And I think everybody want a better world. This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published at https://northeastbylines.co.uk/amnesty-international-is-sixty-years-old/. The second was published at   https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU2105/S00248/amnesty-international-turns-60.htm. The third was published at https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/05/60-years-of-humanity-in-action/

               "Open your newspaper any day of the week and you will find a story from somewhere of someone being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government...." These words are taken from an article by the late British lawyer Peter Benenson entitled "The Forgotten Prisoners" which was published in The Observer on 29 May 1961 yet they could have been written today. Beneson put pen to paper 60 years ago after learning of the imprisonment of two Portuguese students for raising a toast to freedom. (At that time the dictator Salazar ruled Portugal). Peter Benenson's article launched the "Appeal for Amnesty 1961", a worldwide campaign that provoked a huge response. Reprinted in newspaper across the world, his call to action resonated with the values and aspirations of decent people everywhere. This became the genesis of Amnesty International, the world's largest grassroots human rights organization. On 28 May representatives from North East England Amnesty International attended a 60th anniversary commemoration event. Glasses were raised in a toast to freedom in front of a stained glass window depicting the iconic Amnesty candle. This symbolic act is important not only as a mark of recognition for all cases that Amnesty has worked on over the decades, but also as a means of raising awareness of the ongoing violations that need our attention today. Steve Newman, Chair of Amnesty International's Wearside Group and one of the organisers behind the event, first got involved with the charity after travelling around the Asia in the 1980s. He learnt about a wide range of human rights abuses. Amnesty International works to protect people wherever justice, truth and dignity are denied, whether that is in the south or here in the U.K. Benenson's call to action was a heartfelt response to appalling abuse of power by state apparatus. He intended a simple year long campaign focused on 'prisoners of conscience'. 60 years later the work of Amnesty continues to be just as important. Sustained pressure has changed laws in dozens of countries on issues such as refugees, reproductive rights, LGBT equality, and free speech.                                                           A stunning film with Amnesty activists in five iconic global landmarks and dramatic celestial drone art is released to day to celebrate Amnesty International's 60th anniversary. An orchestral version of Peter Gabriel's human rights anthem 'Biko' provides the soundtrack with vocals from The Spirituals choir in London. Peter Gabriel, an Amnesty International Ambassador of conscience, said: "It was a race against time but definitely worth it. Now more than ever, we need as many people as possible to start taking injustice personally and to get involved in any way they can. Amnesty has been doing extraordinary work around the world which I believe is really important and supported for forty years." Bill Shipsey, Founder of Art for Amnesty, who conceived the idea of the film said: "This film combining art, music, poetry and technology is a thank you and testament to the contributions of the millions of Amnesty members present and past who have worked tirelessly for human rights over the past 60 years. We hope the film will inspire a new generation of activists to take action for human rights."                                                                                                                                                                 Amnesty International was founded in 1961 on the idea that together ordinary people can change the world. Today is a worldwide movement for human rights, calling on the collective power of 10 million people, each one committed to fighting for justice, equality and freedom everywhere. Change has not happened overnight. It's taken persistence and a belief in the power of humanity to make a difference. And the result? The release of tens of thousands of people imprisoned for their beliefs or their way of life. Previously untouchable leaders brought to account. Amended laws and changed lives. How do we measure 60 years of collective action? It's there in the accused who is given a fair trial. It's there in the activists freed to continue their defence of human rights. It's there in the marginalised communities who defended their homes from destruction. Sixty years on, we are still battling for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. And we won't stop until it's achieved. In 1973, Amnesty issues its first full urgent action, encouraging the public to act on behalf of Luiz Basilio Rossi, a Brazilian professor arrested for political reasons. "I knew that my case had become public, I knew they could no longer kill me. Then the pressure on me decreased and conditions improved." Since then, Amnesty supporters across the world have campaigned on behalf of thousands of individuals, families and communities. In the 1970s, Chile's regime under General Pinochet agrees to admit a Amnesty International mission to investigate allegations of massive human rights violations. More than 20 years later, Amnesty is a party to legal proceedings that lead to Pinochet's arrest in the U.K. for crimes committed in Chile. In 1979, Amnesty International publishes a list of 2,665 cases of people known to have "disappeared" in Argentina after the military coup. In 2017, the Kenya High Court blocks the government's decision to shut Dadaab refugee camp. the world's largest refugee camp. The ruling comes in response to a petition by two Kenyan human rights organizations, which was supported by Amnesty. In 2018, an European Court of Human Rights ruling finds that the U.K. intelligence services bulk interception of millions of private communications breached human rights laws. The landmark judgment was further expanded by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in 2021, marking clear that unfettered surveillance, violates people's rights to privacy and to free expression and requiring the establishment of robust safeguards against abuse.

The Global State of Democracy 2019

                 This post is the summary of the book published with the incomplete title above in November 2019 at https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/publications/the-global-state-of-democracy-2019.pdf

                    Democracy is ill and its promise needs revival. While the idea of democracy continues to mobilize people around the world, the practice of existing democracies has disappointed and disillusioned many citizens and democracy advocates. Democratic erosion is occurring in different settings and contexts. New democracies are often weak and fragile. Older democracies are struggling to guarantee equitable and sustainable economic and social development. The rise of populist politics is linked to a variety of context-specific factors, but some common drivers include a disenchantment with traditional political actors; the perceived inability of political systems to address core societal and economic problems; and a clash between expectations of what democracy should provide. Populists tap into citizen discontent about rising inequalities, corruption, increasing mass migration, unemployment, and increased digitalization and its impact on labour markets. At the same time, a number of large countries with political and economic clout seem immune to democracy. These political regimes not only persist as non-democracies (e.g. China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia), but have also begun to export their model of governance. Despite this gloomy picture, there are also reasons for optimism. Democratic transitions continue to occur in regimes that seemed staunchly undemocratic or stuck in the hybrid grey zone between democracy and non-democracy. Examples include: Gambia, Ethiopia, Armenia and Malaysia. Popular demands for democratic reforms backed by intense social mobilization have been witnessed across the world in places such as Algeria, Hong Kong, Russia and Sudan. New democracies such as Timor-Leste and Tunisia have also consolidated their democratic gains. The data shows that democracies are more likely to create the conditions for sustainable development. Levels of gender equality are higher in democracies, access to political power is more equal, and there is less corruption. The world needs more and better democracy, to revive the democratic promise. A total of 10 countries are currently experiencing democratic backsliding. The most severe cases are Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. Venezuela represents the most severe democratic backsliding case in the past four decades. Latin America is the third-most democratic region in the world, after North America and Europe, with all but three countries classified as democracies. Democracies in the region have proven resilient. Latin America has a heterogenous democratic landscape. The best performing aspects of Latin American democracy compared to the rest of the world are Electoral Participation and Freedom of Religion. Latin America and the Caribbean ((LAC) is the region  with most advances in political gender equality in the past decades. Together with Europe, the region has the highest representation of women in parliament, averaging 27% which is above the world average of 24%. Cuba is the only country in the region not to have undergone a democratic transition since 1975 and to have persisted as a non-democratic regime for the past four decades. Political parties in LAC are suffering from a crisis of representation. This crisis derives from their difficulty in adapting to societal transformation and increasing expectations of a population deceived by lack of delivery in reducing corruption and inequalities. In order to continue to advance democratically, LAC need to tackle the societal problems they face, reduce corruption and reinvigorate their political party systems. While the large majority of countries in the region have undergone democratic transition and consolidation in the past decades, two countries stand out from that pattern. Nicaragua and Venezuela are among ten countries in the world that have suffered from severe democratic backsliding. Brazil, while still performing in the high range on representative government, had the highest number of subattribute declines in the region between 2013 and 2018. Bolsonaro's election has been seen as a protest against traditional parties and their perceived inability to stave off corruption, reduce social inequalities, reduce crime and violence, and revive an ailing economy. As in other regions in the world, social media is contributing to a profound change in electoral dynamics. Information and communication tech now play an important role as political tools across the political spectrum, and the dissemination of political messages through social media has been a frequent feature in recent elections. In LAC, the current election cycle reveals increasing levels of political polarization, as well as the depth of frustation with political elites and the 'old style of politics'. These developments suggest that the deeper malaise appears to be with politics as it is practised, rather than with the idea of democracy itself. Recent elections of presidential candidates often described by the media as anti-establishment, including Andrés Lopez Labrador in Mexico and Bolsonaro in Brazil, have largely been driven by a sense of civic anger, often directed at corrupt elites, along with a quest to find a political redeemer. However, it is unclear if the region's newly elected leaders will be able to combat its continuing high levels of corruption or whether they will go down the same path as their predecessors who failed in this task. The judiciary is generally perceived as one of the most problematic branches of the state in LAC and remain weak in many countries. Weak judicial capacity affects the ability of countries to adequately combat corruption, crime and violence. Despite democratic advances, levels of corruption remain high in a number of countries in LAC. This constitutes a serious impediment to strengthening the quality of democracy in the region. After the Middle East and Africa, LAC has the largest share of democracies with high levels of corruption. Efforts to fight corruption in the region have often faced resistance from those with political power. This resistance stems from the fact that corruption in a number of countries is deeply embedded within the political structure. Corruption can undermine democracy as high levels of corruption have been shown to reduce citizens trust in democracy. Public funding of political parties, although constructive, has not been the panacea many had expected. In addition, laws regarding limits on campaign have been difficult to impose. The role of illicit funding sources remains a critical problem, particularly at the local level. In Colombia, for instance, about one-third of the legislators in the congress in  were allegedly linked to paramilitary squads. Similar to other regions, LAC has also seen a recent increase in violence against journalists and activists fighting to protect human rights. Along with the concentration of news media, studies have detected large numbers of 'news deserts'  or towns without local news coverage. In Brazil, more than half of all municipalities have no local news outlets. 64 million Brazilians are deprived of adequate news coverage, and therefore impoverished in terms of the quality of democratic debate. The political empowerment of the middle classes is crucial for democracy. Middle classes have demanding effective solutions to the societal challenges affecting the region. Access to justice is the aspect on which LAC performs the poorest compared to the rest of the world. It is urgent to strength the capacity, autonomy, accountability and transparency of the judiciary. Only two countries, Jamaica e Uruguay, have high levels of judicial independence. LAC is the region in the world with the largest share of countries with both high levels of representative government and high levels of corruption. The fight against corruption requires strong political will, intolerance of impunity and a political impartial and integrated approach. Promoting a culture of integrity must become a core priority for all level of government. This requires the input of multiple state institutions at all levels, as well as the private sector and civil society. Their strategies must combine efforts to identify and minimize corruption risks, prevent and sanction corruption, improve technical capacity to investigate and reward integrity. Modernizing the state and strengthening the capacity of a merit-based civil service and public administration and the implementation of open and transparency strategies are also key to the fight against corruption.

Revenue Statistics in Latin America 2020

                     This post is a summary of the book published with the incomplete title above in 2020 at   https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/taxation/revenue-statistics-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean-2020_68739b9b-en-es#page12

                       Revenue statistics in Latin America provides internationally comparable data on tax levels and tax structures for countries. In this publication, "taxes" are defined as compulsory, unrequited payments to general government. Taxes are unrequited in the sense that benefits provided by government to taxpayers are not normally in proportion to their payments. Compulsory social security contributions, paid to governments are classified as taxes. In 2018, the average tax-to-GDP ratios in the LAC (Latin America and Caribbean) region was 23.1%. Across the region, tax-to-GDP ratios ranged from 12.1% in Guatemala to 42.3% in Cuba in 2018. Between 1990 and 2018, the average tax-to-GDP ration in LAC countries rose continuously, increasing from 15.9% to 23.1%. The main contributors to the increase in tax revenues in the LAC region were Value-added taxes (VAT) and taxes on income and profits. Improving tax systems across LAC region is not just a matter of raising higher revenues: the sources of these revenues also matters in addressing the region's social and economic goals. Fiscal policy is essential to build capacities, address development traps and ensure inclusive and sustainable development in LAC countries. This book represents an invaluable resource for governments as they look to strengthen fiscal policy. By providing harmonised and detailed tax data, it allows for in-depth tax-policy analysis, identifying not only how the level of tax revenues varies by country but also which instruments generate these revenues. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay show similar tax-to-GDP ratios and levels of income to some OECD countries. Empirical analysis suggest that stronger tax collection, accompanied by better institutions, education and economic diversification allowed many OECD countries to evade the middle income trap, in contrast to LAC countries. Tax morale, the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes, is a key aspect of a tax system, since most tax system rely on the voluntary compliance of taxpayers. This tax morale amongst individuals appears to be falling across LAC, albeit from a high base.The proportion of those who find evading taxes "justifiable" increased from 17% to 27%. The finding highlight the role for taxpayer education in building tax morale. OECD has surveyed taxpayer education initiatives in 50 countries to be presented in a 2020 report "Building Tax Culture, Compliance and Citizenship." International co-operation can play an important role in improving tax morale by supporting countries to strengthen and simplify tax system and improve the efficiency and quality of public spending. A country's tax revenue as a share of GDP is a variable defined as the amount of monetary resources that a given country captures by applying a set of taxes and similar instruments that, in general, comprise the essential basis of State financing. In conventional terms, this indicator is usually expressed in relation to a country's gross domestic product (GDP), so as to ensure a comparable unit of measure. Below the ranking with the highest tax-to-GDP ratio to the lowest. We can see the Brazil has the second highest tax-to-GDP ratio in the Americas.

Tax-to-GDP ratio 2018 in PanAmerican countries                                 Rest of the World

Canada    33.2%                                                                                         France      45.9%          

Brazil     33.1%                                                                                         Sweden      43.9%

Uruguay    29.2%                                                                                        Italy       41.9%

Argentina      28.8%                                                                                   Norway      39.6%                                         

 Guyana      27.4%                                                                                      Germany      38.5%

Bolivia     25.4%                                                                                         Portugal       34.8%

U.S.A.        24.4%                                                                                        Spain       34.6%

Costa Rica      24.0                                                                                        U.K.       32.9%

Nicaragua     23.0%                                                                                   New Zealand     32.9%

Honduras       22.3%                                                                                          Japan      32.0%

Chile        21.1%                                                                                             Australia      28.7%

Ecuador    20.6%                                                                                          South Africa       28.6%

Colombia       19.4%                                                                                        Switzerland        28.0%

Peru         16.4%                                                                                              South Korea       26.8 % 

Mexico      16.1%                                                                                                 Russia       24.2%

Panama      14.6%                                                                                                Ireland      22.7%

Paraguay        14.0%                                                                                            India      18.1%

Guatemala     12.1%                                                                                            China        17.5%