Sarah Saadoun

Low tax revenues helped drive Sri Lanka to economic crisis. New report by @hrw.org’s @sarahsaadoun.bsky.social on how tax policies favoring companies & the wealthy have for decades been undermining human rights, including to education www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

Sri Lanka: Ruinous Tax Policies Stoke Inequality Sri Lanka’s tax policies played a driving role in the country’s devastating 2022 economic crisis and have contributed to the chronic underfunding of education and other public services.

Today, @hrw.org released the 1st major report on tax, documenting how policies that favor the rich drove Sri Lanka into economic crisis & starved its public education system. UN tax treaty negotiations are historic chance to address a root cause. www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

UN Meeting Seeks to Embed Human Rights in New Economic Indicators A country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which measures total economic output, is central to how governments assess their economies. But this figure, when looked at in isolation, incentivizes economi...

We assess economies based on GDP, but all it measures is total productivity, incentivizing growth while ignoring inequality, environmental degradation & human rights like health & education. Good news is there’s a process underway to develop new metrics: www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

Sri Lanka’s tax policies played a driving role in the country’s devastating 2022 economic crisis and have contributed to the chronic underfunding of education and other public services.

New report @hrw.org / @sarahsaadoun.bsky.social, going out on Oct 15.

Reporters can DM me for embargoed copy etc

Progress on the Road to a UN Tax Treaty Over the past two weeks, United Nations member countries started substantive negotiations for the first-ever UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation; a historic process that reflects ...

Watching states negotiate the first-ever UN tax treaty was a window into geopolitical shifts - and a ray of hope for changing tax rules that deprive all governments of revenues for the benefit of the wealthiest: new from
@hrw.org www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...

The Global Impact of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Podcast Episode · The People’s Program · 07/24/2025 · 24m

Had a great chat with @rosiebultman.bsky.social of KCSB and my @hrw.org colleague @sarahsaadoun.bsky.social about the Trump admin's terrible budget bill and how it will make ordinary people pay for tax cuts for the rich with their health

Take a listen 👇

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

The Global Impact of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Podcast Episode · The People’s Program · 07/24/2025 · 24m

Pleasure to join @rosiebultman.bsky.social on The People’s Program with my @hrw.org colleague @mattcconnell.bsky.social to talk about how Trump used the budget bill to kill a global rule meant to finally make companies pay a minimum tax rate on their profits. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

How Trump Weaponized the US Budget Bill Overseas The Trump administration has weaponized its bill to benefit the wealthiest US corporations by undermining global efforts to tax businesses fairly.

Trump’s budget doesn’t just attack inequality at home, it’s a global giveaway to corporate giants, sabotaging efforts to make billionaires and multinationals pay their fair share. While the world fights for tax justice, this administration rigs the system even further

www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...

US: Budget Would Benefit Wealthiest at Expense of Rights The budget reconciliation bill passed by the United States Senate today would extend tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the country’s wealthiest families while reducing spending on health and ot...

Trump's budget-busting bill...

Sure, it adds trillions to the national debt, but it transfers funds away from the poor, who already have too much money, to the rich, who desperately need money.

Can't see anything wrong there.
www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...

How Trump Weaponized the US Budget Bill Overseas The Trump administration has weaponized its bill to benefit the wealthiest US corporations by undermining global efforts to tax businesses fairly.

Trump’s budget not only transfers public goods to private pockets in the US, he weaponised the process to let US companies keep ripping off the govts where they operate, hurting their ability to fund health, education & other rights www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...

US: Budget Would Benefit Wealthiest at Expense of Rights The budget reconciliation bill passed by the United States Senate today would extend tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the country’s wealthiest families while reducing spending on health and ot...

“It’s appalling that President Trump ran on a campaign to fix the economy but is delivering a budget that makes ordinary people pay with their health for tax breaks for millionaires” @mattcconnell.bsky.social @hrw.org on the catastrophe of a budget the senate just passed www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...

This is on top of the $79 trillion in upward redistribution since 1975, as per Carter C. Price's latest assessment in their Rand Corporation report
www.rand.org/pubs/working...

@randeurope.org #econsky #polisky #history

US Senators are currently debating the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" to advance President Trump’s agenda.
 
This bill is not a solution to economic inequality or for managing immigration procedures – it is a blueprint for cruelty.
 
✍️ Urge Congress to stop the bill NOW:
www.hrw.org/NotOnOurWatch

From Kenyans protesting regressive taxes to US budgets fights over tax cuts for the rich, one thing is clear: tax policies are central to human rights. A new database from @hrw.org shows UN human rights bodies made 168 tax-related recommendations to 98 states. www.hrw.org/news/2025/06...

NEW: The Senate version of One Big Beautiful Bill is one big ugly transfer of wealth from low-income families to the rich.

Americans struggling to get by will pay more for groceries & health care so the highest income families can get big tax cuts. This isn’t shared sacrifice.

UN Financing Development Meeting Should Advance Tax Justice The United Nations conference on financing for development should help pave the way for meaningful progress on improving international tax cooperation to benefit everyone’s human rights.

The United Nations conference on financing for development should help pave the way for meaningful progress on improving international tax cooperation to benefit everyone’s human rights: www.hrw.org/news/2025/06...

The reconciliation bill puts health benefits for tipped workers at risk. ⬇️

UN Financing Development Meeting Should Advance Tax Justice The United Nations conference on financing for development should help pave the way for meaningful progress on improving international tax cooperation to benefit everyone’s human rights.

10,000 people are coming to Sevilla in a scorching heatwave to discuss financing for development. You know what would make the conference super cool? Advancing tax justice. 😎 New from @hrw.org
on #FFD4Sevilla: www.hrw.org/news/2025/06...

Kenya/IMF: Align Economic Reform with Rights The Kenyan government and International Monetary Fund should work together to ensure that the IMF program and its implementation align with human rights.

Protestors in #Kenya commemorating one year anniversary since protests against a regressive tax bill once again met with horrific violence, killing at least 8 people. Here’s @hrw analysis of why the tax bill violates human rights: www.hrw.org/news/2024/07...

Disability rights activists march in London against social security cuts as the UK’s Chancellor Rachel Reeves presents her “Spring Statement” or mini-budget, March 26, 2025. © 2025 Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Dispatch for @hrw.org on the draft bill on social security in the UK.

The proposed benefit cuts will harm people with disabilities, worsen poverty, and undermine rights.

The government says the bill “will protect the most vulnerable.” Its own data belie that claim.

www.hrw.org/news/2025/06...

This is a big win in the fight for labor rights of gig workers. If you want to get a sense of why this is so important, read Lena's fantastic report on gig workers in Texas: www.hrw.org/report/2025/...

Rich Gain and Poor Lose in Republican Policy Bill, Budget Office Finds

Exactly what the US needed: more inequality. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/12/u...

Gene Leon, president of a development bank, making the case for going beyond GDP, among other proposals for making the 4th Financing for Development conference a success www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/ffd4-c...

Gene Leon, president of a development bank, making the case for going beyond GDP, among other proposals for making the 4th Financing for Development conference a success www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/ffd4-c...

Gene Leon, president of a development bank, making the case for going beyond GDP, among other proposals for making the 4th Financing for Development conference a success www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/ffd4-c...

snap cuts, growing to 35% by 2034

chip and medicaid cuts growing to 12-14% by 2034

Cost estimate of the House-passed "Big Beautiful Bill" is out

It'd be the largest cut to Medicaid+CHIP and SNAP in history while still increasing deficits by $2.4 trillion due to $3.8 trillion in tax cuts

This'd be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in history

How did we get here? Decades of economic myths.
We treat the federal budget like a household’s—obsessed with deficits, ignoring that a monetarily sovereign government like the U.S. can’t “run out of money.”
We cut public support, enrich the wealthy, and then ask why inequality explodes.
#EconSky

5/ new EU regs on banning forced labor www.hrw.org/news/2025/04... with Q&A www.hrw.org/news/2025/04...

And one more...Why we need an int'l obligation for free pre-primary education www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

4/ Top African rights court considers states' obligations & holdings companies acountable for climate change www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

On labor rights
Rights of street vendors www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

Women in Afghanistan fighting for their right to work
www.hrw.org/news/2025/04...

Competition for Minerals Should Respect Rights and the Environment As the role of minerals in global politics and energy transition grows, governments should ensure that the protection of human rights and the environment, and the need to tackle poverty and inequality...

3/ On climate
recs on rush for critical minerals www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

wood products in malaysia are tainted by deforestration www.hrw.org/news/2025/05...

what should brazil focus on when it hosts COP30 www.hrw.org/news/2025/04...

let's phase out fossil fuels! www.hrw.org/news/2025/04...