In 2022, TrustLaw, the global pro bono network of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, engaged its network of law firms in research to map inequality-related disclosure laws and regulations across ten countries—Brazil, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Mexico, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Singapore.  The research identified existing legal mandates for horizontal and vertical inequality disclosures, supply chain transparency, informal economy considerations, and corporate tax avoidance. This report, written by Joanne Bauer and Manuela Corredor Vásquez, is a distillation of the Trust Law research. 

The research was undertaken as a resource for the Taskforce on Inequality-related Financial Disclosure (TIFD), an initiative that brought together a diverse coalition of stakeholders to develop a framework to reduce private sector contributions to inequality, which could be adopted by policy makers and regulators. In September 2024, the taskforce officially launched as the Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD) with an initial mandate to develop the framework by 2026. 

As mandatory sustainability gains momentum, through initiatives such as the International Sustainability Standard Board and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, this report demonstrates that there is already a critical foundation for advancing mandatory reporting on inequality globally.