Africa

Our record of accomplishment in fighting Odious Debts

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Patricia Adams

May 15, 2003

Some of Probe International’s accomplishments in fighting Odious Debts during the last decade.

1991 Probe International publishes Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption,
and the Third World’s Environmental Legacy (Earthscan, London). In the
United Kingdom, the Guardian describes it as eloquent and
controversial, the Globe and Mail calls it a “tour de force,” and the
Bangkok Nation notes Odious Debts is “extremely provocative” and “is
worth the try.” The Toronto Star says it “will change your view of how
the world really works in an irrevocable, fundamental way.”
1991 Patricia Adams’ book tours of South America, Asia and Europe, popularizes the odious debts concept.
1993 Odious Debts is published in Spanish by an Argentinian publisher, and
becomes available to millions of Latin American readers. Experts later
describe it as a “seminal” work in the resolution of the Third World’s
debt.
1997 With Odious Debts as their basis, South African citizens call on the
government of Nelson Mandela to repudiate the inherited debts of the
apartheid regime.
1998 South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission recognizes the
odiousness of the apartheid debts. Desmond Tutu, the chair of the
commission, later endorses the Doctrine of Odious Debts.
1998 The Jubilee Movement – an organization backed by the world’s major
churches calling for Third World debt cancellation – adopts the odious
debts doctrine.
1999 After the G7 meeting in Cologne attracts 35,000 demonstrators, the
Third World debt movement asks Canada’s Probe International and South
Africa’s odious debts campaigners to launch a Web site that will act as
a resource for Third World citizens groups. This site is now operating
at http://www.odiousdebts.org.
2001 Patricia Adams meets with Indonesia’s president and his senior advisors
in Jakarta, and with odious debts and anti-corruption campaigners in
that country, to discuss repudiating the odious debts of the Suharto
regime.
2002 Odious Debts is translated into Bahasa Indonesia, making it available to that country’s 207 million citizens
2002 Probe McGill University legal scholars complete a 200-page
investigation into the Doctrine of Odious Debts, and conclude that it
is “morally compelling” and “well supported under international law.”
2002 An IMF conference gives top billing to a proposal by Harvard economists
to stop future odious debts. The IMF then introduces the proposal in
its magazine, Finance and Development, explaining that, “Many
developing countries are carrying debt incurred by rulers who borrowed
without the people’s consent and used the funds either to repress the
people or for personal gain. A new approach is warranted to prevent
dictators from running up debts, looting their countries, and passing
on their debts to the population.”
2002 Probe International and Jubilee South campaigners from the Philippines
and Nigeria, tour Germany to help its Jubilee movement develop its
campaign against odious debts.
2003 Signatures calling for the cancellation of Third World debts collected by the Jubilee Movements reaches the 26 million mark.
2003

Categories: Africa, Odious Debts

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