Inequality between states has been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic. The economic consequences have been particularly devastating in countries of the Global South. The resources they can mobilise to respond to the crisis are, however, totally inadequate. This makes it all the more important that the wealthier countries and the international financial institutions cooperate by lifting the barriers their debt and tax policies impose on the fiscal space of low- and middle-income countries. Such cooperation is not only a global public health imperative. It is also a binding human rights obligation, as Ignacio Saiz explains.