Odious Debts Online
November 20, 2007

Neil Watkins, National Coordinator of Jubilee USA Network, testified [PDF] before the Congressional House Committee on Financial Services considering the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation of 2007, earlier this month.

The proposed landmark bill [PDF] would dissolve the debts of 67 of the world’s poorest countries owed to the United States and other official creditors in the Paris Club, the IMF, World Bank and other international financial institutions.

“Many of the debts of impoverished nations are odious or illegitimate in nature”, said Watkins in his testimony. “They are debts accrued by undemocratic regimes or that did not benefit the population. Often these loans were irresponsibly made by the United States and other creditors.”

Watkins further stated that assessments should be made as to “whether or not past investments produced the intended results…such audits would investigate the process by which the loans were contracted, how the funds were utilized and their product, and determine whether US and/or international laws were violated in the process.”

The bill, introduced to the House last June, has since garnered a great deal of support and currently has 86 co-signers.

“If Congress passes the bill, exposing past odious debts, it will be one of the most promising events in the history of the campaign to hold looters and lax lenders to account,” said Patricia Adams, Executive Director of Probe International and author of Odious Debts.

Emira Woods [PDF] , Board Chair of Africa Action and Co-Director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, Gerald F. Flood [PDF] , Counselor at the Office of International Justice and Peace, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Aldo Caliari, Director of the Rethinking Bretton Woods Project at the Center of Concern, also provided testimony in favour of the legislation.