The approved terms of reference for the UN Framework Convention on Tax Cooperation (UNTC) set out commitments that the convention must include in order to achieve its objectives. These commitments include a fair distribution of taxing rights; the treatment of tax evasion and avoidance by high-net-worth individuals, and the assurance of their effective taxation; approaches to international tax cooperation that contribute to achieving sustainable development; mutual assistance in tax matters; addressing illicit financial flows related to taxation, tax evasion and tax avoidance; and the prevention and effective resolution of disputes.

Beyond the commitments in the Convention itself, the terms of reference provide for the existence of additional protocols, which are separate binding legal instruments in the context of the Convention to implement or elaborate its contents. Signataries of the Convention may decide to be parties or not to these protocols.

Download the document

In the context of international treaties, the term “protocol” can refer to a variety of agreements. Although protocols may be stand-alone instruments, they are usually supplementary to a main treaty they modify or complement in some way. Protocols may be adopted simultaneously or subsequently to the main treaty; be optional or mandatory to the parties to the treaty (the States that agreed to be bound by it); and have the same or separate institutions from those of the main treaty.

Despite the variety of outcomes of the Framework convention-protocol approach, protocols are treaties themselves and are therefore generally binding. Consequently, they shall regulate issues normally contained in binding norms. In the case of the UNTC, the terms of reference have chosen a mechanism of optional protocols (i.e. each party to the Convention will decide independently whether to adopt them or not). The parties to the future Convention should have the flexibility to adopt protocols on the issues they deem most appropriate, as long as they are a way of implementing the main commitments of the Convention.