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The third intergovernmental session on the UN Tax Convention, hosted in Nairobi, Kenya, has three main objectives: to review the draft text of the Framework Convention negotiations to reach a common understanding on the articles and protocols and develop a more coherent text in the coming months; to provide updates on progress made during the intersessional period on Protocol 1, concerning the taxation of income from cross-border services, with a view to presenting potential options and approaches for the committee’s consideration during the 4th session in February 2026; and to turn to Protocol 2, where the workstream has begun developing preliminary approaches outlined in the concept note.
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Lurit Yugusuk, speaking for the Youth for Tax Justice Network, reminded the room that harmful tax practices don’t just affect balance sheets, they affect people.“Harmful tax practices erode national tax bases, weakening the capacity to finance education, healthcare, and infrastructure that children and youth depend on.” She called for expanding Article 8 beyond multinational enterprises to include high-net-worth individuals, private investment vehicles, and professional enablers. She also pushed for mandatory public disclosure of tax incentives and public country-by-country reporting, emphasizing that “secrecy has been the lifeblood of harmful tax practices.”
YTJN intends to once again collaborate with KYMCA to hold public hearings for the Bill with the citizens and the Assembly and then have the MCAs debate the Bill in the Assembly. This Bill once passed into law is expected to address youth unemployment, insufficient domestic resource mobilization, food insecurity, double taxation of youth operating in small and medium enterprises, teenage pregnancies, skillset mismatch amongst the youth, limited youth participation in formulation of policies and laws at County level among others.
In an era marked by deepening inequalities and shifting global financial systems, the question of who decides how resources are raised, shared, and governed has never been more urgent. Taxation, which has been long perceived as a technical issue reserved for experts and state negotiators, is now at the heart of global justice debates. As nations move toward a new United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, the need to ensure inclusivity, fairness, intergenerational equity and legitimacy within this process is critical.
At this critical juncture, the Youth Tax Justice Network (YTJN) stands at the forefront of redefining participation and representation in fiscal processes and fiscourse by championing the voices, priorities, and aspirations of young people across the Global South and beyond. We are backed by the belief and recognition that youth are not merely future taxpayers, but they are present stakeholders, who continue to find ways of organizing, researching, and advocating for a tax system that delivers equity, transparency, and sustainability.