Welcome

What is Human Act

Human Act is an independent foundation (NGO) working with partners both nationally and internationally to create awareness about inequalities in the world and to mobilize people to advocate a fairer distribution of the world’s wealth. Human Act focuses its efforts on a way forward to SDG 10 to reduce inequality within and among countries.

Since 2016, Human Act has been advocating a wealth tax on significantly wealthy people through different initiatives. The Move Humanity initiative focused on building the scientific research to describe the model and the effect of a wealth tax as well as on building awareness around this. The Millionaires for Humanity initiative was launched in 2020 to build an international network of wealth holders who support and advocate for a wealth tax.

Every year between 2020 and 2030, in the context of the SDG Decade of Action, Human Act will present the Human Act Award to a passionate change-maker who is dedicated to taking action on the world’s most pressing issues. The award consists of a sculpture, a diploma, and a cash award of USD 100 000.

In addition to this, Human Act makes philanthropic donations to ‘projects on the ground’, primarily in the areas of inequality, education and health care.

Human Act was founded by entrepreneur and philanthropist Djaffar Shalchi and his wife Ané Maro in March 2016. The foundation is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

And the Human Act Award of 2022 is awarded to Marlene Engelhorn

Marlene Engelhorn was awarded for her incredible and relentless approach to working towards wealth taxes in german-speaking europe.

Marlene is the co-founder and one of the faces of the Taxmenow. Taxmenow is an initiative of wealthy people who are actively committed to tax justice.

Marlene has decided not to receive the cash prize of $100,000 which comes with the Human Act Award, but that we could donate the money to others in need.

The money has therefore been donated to the poorest people in Nepal through our partner in Nepal.

Picture by: © Ulrich Palzer

It’s 2022 and time for change. It’s time for a wealth tax.

As the world reels from the COVID-19 crisis, countries desperately need to finance health for all, economic recovery, and poverty reduction. And as the world grapples with the social tensions generated by rising inequality, countries desperately need to find a way to rebuild social cohesion. The great news for 2022 is that there is a way: to tax the wealth of multimillionaires to help fund the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"I know – because I am one of the multimillionaires who would have to pay a wealth tax." - Djaffar Shalchi, founder of Human Act and the initiatives Millionaires for Humanity and Move Humanity.

Meet our Advisory Board

The Human Act and Millionaires for Humanity Advisory Board will support insight, relation-building, and strategic advice to create a systemic change towards worldwide wealth taxation.

Millionaires For Humanity

Human Act works to model collaboration and collective action. We are proud to have launched and to host several joint initiatives.

In 2021, we formally launched Millionaires for Humanity - a collaboration of a group of high-net-worth individuals committed to going beyond philanthropy, advocating for the systemic change needed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. We continue to provide the secretariat and host it. You can find out more about Millionaires for Humanity on the button below.

Human Act Annual Report 2020/2021

Human Act is an independent foundation (NGO) working with partners both nationally and internationally to create awareness about inequalities in the world and to mobilize people to push for a fairer distribution of the world’s wealth.

Human Act advocates a global wealth tax on billionaires to help finance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and make a difference in the lives of the millions of people living in extreme poverty.