 
KAIROS Marks Global Day of Action Against Debt Domination
5 December 2003
Today KAIROS joins social movements around the world in a day of
action against unjust and illegitimate external debts.
KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, successor to the
Canadian churches' Jubilee debt remission campaign, stands in solidarity
with the global movement against debt domination.
One week from today Paul Martin will become Prime Minister of Canada.
We challenge Mr. Martin to carry through on promises he made to
address the debt issue when he was Finance Minister.
Mr. Martin showed leadership by making Canada the first country
to promise to remit 100% of the bilateral debts owed by some low-income
counties. But these debts owed to Canada constitute less than one
half of one percent of all low-income country debts. Much larger
multilateral debts owed to International Financial Institutions
like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank remain.
The following data demonstrate how the debt crisis has worsened
in spite of the small amounts of debt relief by Canada and other
creditors:
- Since the international debt crisis was first recognized in
1980, Southern countries' external debts have ballooned from US$580
billion to US$2.4 trillion at the end of last year. This four-fold
increase in debt occurred despite the fact that these countries
have made some US$4.8 trillion in debt payments over the last
22 years.
- For every dollar owed in 1980, developing countries have paid
out $8.35 in debt service since then. These debts have been repaid
many times over.
- In 2001 alone, the net outflow of debt payments in excess of
new loans amounted to over US$116 billion, an unconscionable transfer
of wealth from the South to the North. That same year developing
countries paid $7.30 in debt service for every dollar received
in Official Development Assistance.
The Canadian churches have consistently maintained that these debts
are illegitimate. Many were contracted by illegitimate military
dictatorships. Others had illegitimate terms, for example floating
interest rates that were later unilaterally raised above 20%. Others
were contracted by corrupt rulers who stole the proceeds and some
were used for illegitimate purposes such as projects that damaged
the natural environment and displaced peoples from their ancestral
lands. Obligations to repay debts are illegitimate when they deny
peoples' basic human rights to food, shelter, health care and education.
Despite growing evidence that palliatives like the Heavily Indebted
Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative have failed to resolve the debt
crisis, Northern creditors have ignored their unfulfilled promises
to lift the burden of debt from Southern peoples. Instead, they
have used conditions attached to HIPC debt relief to impose further
structural adjustment programs (SAPs) on Southern countries. Experience
over the last two decades demonstrates that these SAPs have led
to growing poverty, ill health, unemployment and environmental destruction.
With millions of people dying every year from treatable diseases
like HIV/AIDS due to a lack of funds for life-saving medicines,
total cancellation of low-income countries' debts is more urgent
than ever.
We call on Mr. Martin to recognize that official debt relief programs
like HIPC not only fail to address the roots of the problem, but
also have failed even on their own terms as some countries like
Zambia and Niger now face higher debt service burdens than before
they qualified for HIPC.
On this Day of Action, Dec. 5, 2003, KAIROS calls on Mr. Martin
to show leadership again by promoting the core demands of our Jubilee
debt campaign on the international stage:
| 1. |
Immediately and unconditionally cancel 100% of
the bilateral and multilateral debts of all low-income countries
forcing the IMF to use its gold reserves and the World Bank
to use its loan loss reserves and retained earnings to pay the
costs. |
| 2. |
End the imposition of Structural Adjustment Programs. |
| 3. |
Co-operate with measures that will lead to assessing the origins
and canceling all the illegitimate debts of all developing countries. |
Like the persistent widow in the Gospel story (Luke 18:1-8) who
pestered the judge until she achieved justice, we in the Canadian
churches will not desist from demanding cancellation of immoral
and unjust debts. For us, the Jubilee debt remission campaign was
not a one-time endeavour to be tried and then forgotten. For us,
the Jubilee demand for debt cancellation and release from the bondage
of debt slavery is a goal that we will never forsake.
We now challenge Mr. Martin to take leadership on the international
stage to set free millions of people held hostage by unjust and
illegitimate debts.
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