In the wake of the recent disclosure of leaked Bahamas tax haven data, United Nations human rights experts today urged governments to work together on liquidating offshore tax avoidance and establishing tougher financial regulations.

In a news release, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, the UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, and two members of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, Obiora Okafor and Jean Ziegler, stressed the importance of establishing a UN body designated specifically to target and eliminate tax heaven secrecy.

According to experts, countries lose hundreds of billions of dollars every year (offshore), while individuals manage to hide between $7 and $25 trillion of funds that could and should be used to fund public services such as health care, schools, housing, social security, law enforcement, transportation infrastructure, and courts.