Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

We stand in solidarity with all those who have suffered the impacts and consequences of these 80 years of misery, devastation and debt, and with the struggles they continue to wage around the world to stop the harm, secure justice and achieve genuine reparation.

The IMF IMF
International Monetary Fund Along with the World Bank, the IMF was founded on the day the Bretton Woods Agreements were signed. Its first mission was to support the new system of standard exchange rates.

When the Bretton Wood fixed rates system came to an end in 1971, the main function of the IMF became that of being both policeman and fireman for global capital: it acts as policeman when it enforces its Structural Adjustment Policies and as fireman when it steps in to help out governments in risk of defaulting on debt repayments.

As for the World Bank, a weighted voting system operates: depending on the amount paid as contribution by each member state. 85% of the votes is required to modify the IMF Charter (which means that the USA with 17,68% % of the votes has a de facto veto on any change).

The institution is dominated by five countries: the United States (16,74%), Japan (6,23%), Germany (5,81%), France (4,29%) and the UK (4,29%).
The other 183 member countries are divided into groups led by one country. The most important one (6,57% of the votes) is led by Belgium. The least important group of countries (1,55% of the votes) is led by Gabon and brings together African countries.

http://imf.org and WB World Bank
WB The World Bank was founded as part of the new international monetary system set up at Bretton Woods in 1944. Its capital is provided by member states’ contributions and loans on the international money markets. It financed public and private projects in Third World and East European countries.

It consists of several closely associated institutions, among which :

1. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, 189 members in 2017), which provides loans in productive sectors such as farming or energy ;

2. The International Development Association (IDA, 159 members in 1997), which provides less advanced countries with long-term loans (35-40 years) at very low interest (1%) ;

3. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), which provides both loan and equity finance for business ventures in developing countries.

As Third World Debt gets worse, the World Bank (along with the IMF) tends to adopt a macro-economic perspective. For instance, it enforces adjustment policies that are intended to balance heavily indebted countries’ payments. The World Bank advises those countries that have to undergo the IMF’s therapy on such matters as how to reduce budget deficits, round up savings, enduce foreign investors to settle within their borders, or free prices and exchange rates.

have failed to acknowledge the systemic nature of the debt crisis, focusing instead on protecting financial markets and creditors’ profits, mostly in the Global North. This failure to address the critical reality of debt subjugation has led to gross violation of the rights and well-being of peoples and the planet, rendering sustainable development and climate action in the Global South virtually impossible and perpetuating colonial legacies.

 Stop Driving Unsustainable and illegitimate debts

Despite the IMF-WB’s proclaimed concern for development and eradicating poverty, the lending policies, structural adjustments, and loan conditionalities they impose in the Global South have built a system of perpetual indebtedness that feeds the concentration of profits in a handful of financial and corporate actors in the Global North.

Public debts in the South continue to rise as the IMF-WB promotes debt-creating, market-based, private sector-privileging “solutions”, and financialization of the global economy which have proven to be harmful, short-sighted and counterproductive. They aggressively provided illegitimate lending to corrupt, undemocratic, repressive regimes, and funded harmful projects that have inflicted violation of rights to people and degradation to the environment. The people harmed by these illegitimate debts also bear the burden of paying them.

In 2024, international lenders are expected to drain US$487 billion from governments in the Global South, the highest ever external debt service Debt service The sum of the interests and the amortization of the capital borrowed. payment. It is reprehensible that most of these payments will go to Northern private lenders that make huge profits out of debt-distressed countries with higher interest rates Interest rates When A lends money to B, B repays the amount lent by A (the capital) as well as a supplementary sum known as interest, so that A has an interest in agreeing to this financial operation. The interest is determined by the interest rate, which may be high or low. To take a very simple example: if A borrows 100 million dollars for 10 years at a fixed interest rate of 5%, the first year he will repay a tenth of the capital initially borrowed (10 million dollars) plus 5% of the capital owed, i.e. 5 million dollars, that is a total of 15 million dollars. In the second year, he will again repay 10% of the capital borrowed, but the 5% now only applies to the remaining 90 million dollars still due, i.e. 4.5 million dollars, or a total of 14.5 million dollars. And so on, until the tenth year when he will repay the last 10 million dollars, plus 5% of that remaining 10 million dollars, i.e. 0.5 million dollars, giving a total of 10.5 million dollars. Over 10 years, the total amount repaid will come to 127.5 million dollars. The repayment of the capital is not usually made in equal instalments. In the initial years, the repayment concerns mainly the interest, and the proportion of capital repaid increases over the years. In this case, if repayments are stopped, the capital still due is higher…

The nominal interest rate is the rate at which the loan is contracted. The real interest rate is the nominal rate reduced by the rate of inflation. . Other lenders, including international financial institutions and wealthy Northern governments, are also demanding substantial debt payments. IMF surcharges levied on top of debt service exacerbates the burden of countries most in need of financial assistance.

 Stop Worsening Southern Debt burdens

The burden of unsustainable and illegitimate debts impedes broad-based development, deepens poverty and inequality, and undermines sovereignty. As part of conditionalities to access credit or debt relief measures, the IMF and the World Bank continue to impose austerity measures and other policies that are now ingrained in borrowing countries. Millions of people now live in countries where governments spend more on debt service payments than on essential rights and services. Healthcare, education, universal social protection, energy, access to water, care and other public services are slashed to prioritize the interest Interest An amount paid in remuneration of an investment or received by a lender. Interest is calculated on the amount of the capital invested or borrowed, the duration of the operation and the rate that has been set. of lenders.

Women, working people and marginalized communities bear the brunt of these policies. Sovereign nations are forced to cede their self-determination to meet the endless demands of lenders. In flagrant violation of international law, control over natural resources, including fossil fuels, is ceded to extract profits and pay debts, even at the expense of social upheaval, environmental degradation, and worsening vulnerabilities to the climate crisis. These impacts have worsened inequality and the capacity of democratic processes and institutions to defy the impunity of a handful of individuals holding greater wealth and power than billions of people.

 Stop dominating development and climate finance

Those historically responsible for the climate crisis continue to deny their obligation to make reparations to the people in the Global South who have contributed the least to the crisis. Instead of paying up their fair share Share A unit of ownership interest in a corporation or financial asset, representing one part of the total capital stock. Its owner (a shareholder) is entitled to receive an equal distribution of any profits distributed (a dividend) and to attend shareholder meetings. to meet the massive climate finance needed to address the intensifying climate emergency they use the IMF and the World Bank as instruments to renege on their obligations to deliver on their obligations to provide public, non-debt creating, conditionality-free and adequate climate finance.

The Global North and the financial institutions that they control are pushing more loans and investment schemes that offer more opportunities for the private sector to make more profit Profit The positive gain yielded from a company’s activity. Net profit is profit after tax. Distributable profit is the part of the net profit which can be distributed to the shareholders. . Over 70% of funds labelled as climate finance currently come in the form of loans, forcing debt-distressed countries into deeper financial crisis and locking many communities into continued fossil fuel production and resource exploitation. The World Bank worsens this crisis by pushing profit-driven, debt-creating climate programs that leave developing nations struggling to pay off loans instead of focusing on protecting their people and environment.

Despite the IMF and the World Bank’s 80 years of failure to bring about adequate, equitable, sustainable development financing, those countries that control the IMF-WB are now using these financial institutions to evade their responsibility to deliver public and non-debt creating climate finance, by setting up lending facilities such as the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust.

Those countries, peoples and ecosystems that have been made most vulnerable, continue to be forced to pay for a crisis they did not create. We must not forget that the Global North insisted on the WB playing a major role in the Loss and Damage Fund and the Green Climate Fund, with the aim of ensuring the North’s control over these funds and that they be operated similar to the World Bank. But they were not fully successful in the face of the push back by Global South governments and civil society organizations. We must remain ever vigilant and continue campaigning to free these climate finance funds from the influence of the WB.

 Reparations Now!

We reiterate the calls, demands and actions of people and communities around the world to end debt domination and make genuine reparations to those whose lives have been shattered by the system of perpetual debt and the harmful policies and programs that have been and continue to be promoted.

• We hold the IMF and WB, along with the G7 governments that control them, accountable for their role in perpetuating debt domination, the climate crisis and global inequality. We demand a financial system that prioritises human rights, social welfare, and environmental sustainability over the interests of a wealthy few.
• The IMF-WB and other international financial institutions, private lenders and Northern governments must cease and desist from inflicting harm to people and the planet and begin the long overdue task of ensuring Justice and Reparations.

We further call for immediate and comprehensive action by peoples and governments both South and North to advance debt, economic and ecological justice.

• The Global North must immediately cancel all illegitimate and unsustainable debts, fulfil their financial obligations to the Global South, and scrap harmful lending policies:

1. Aside from bilateral loans, this must include compelling private creditors within their jurisdiction to take part in debt cancellation.
2. Wealthy polluting governments must immediately fulfil their obligation to provide adequate, better quality, new and additional grant-based climate finance as part of recognition, restitution and reparations for climate and ecological debt owed to the South;
3. Funds for Climate Action must be public, non-debt creating, democratic and independently governed by financial mechanisms under the UNFCCC and away from the IMF-WB;
4. Completely remove IMF loan conditionalities and Surcharges.

• The General Assembly of the United Nations must:

1. Establish a fair, transparent, democratic, multilateral mechanism, on the basis of a Framework Convention on Sovereign Debts, under the auspices of the UN to address the current and prevent future illegitimate and unsustainable debt crises;
2. Advance measures to enforce the human rights, peace, and environmental protection obligations of the IMF, the WB, and private lenders and put an end to their impunity of destructive lending.

• Global South must:

1. Commit to prioritise states’ domestic resource mobilisation and public spending to guarantee the adequate and sustainable financing of human rights and public services. This entails decoupling of economic models from the demand to generate foreign currency for the purposes of debt servicing;
2. National debt audits must be undertaken as a participatory process to establish responsibilities and specify reparations due from existing illegitimate debts;
3. Assert the sovereign right of states to take appropriate actions to tackle illegitimate debts and prevent unsustainable debts, including the right to stop debt payment.

The time for debt justice is now! We must dismantle the structures of exploitation engendered in the global financial system and build a just, equitable, and sustainable future for all.

 Sign Now

INTERNATIONAL/REGIONAL

Asian Peoples’ Movement On Debt And Development

Asia

Actionaid International

International And Regional

Asia Pacific Forum On Women, Law And Development (APWLD)

Regional

African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD)

Regional

Red Latinoamericana Por Justicia Económica Y Social - LATINDADD

Regional

CADTM International

International

Debt For Climate

International

ESCR-Net

International

Fight Inequality Alliance

Asia

Global Call To Action Against Poverty (GCAP)

International

Oxfam

International And Regional

AFRICA

Organisation Paysanne Pour Le Développement Durable

Congo-Kinshasa

Daayyaa Generation Network (Dgn)

Ethiopia

Abibinsroma Foundation

Ghana

Daughters Of Mumbi Global Resource Center

Kenya

Fight Inequality Alliance Kenya

Kenya

Good Health Community Programmes

Kenya

Kisumu Social Rights Association (Kisora)

Kenya

Hakijamii – Putting People First

Kenya

Green Generational Initiative

Kenya

African Network Of Young Leaders For Peace And Sustainable Development

Kenya

Muungano wa Wanavijiji

Kenya

Nyanthepa Community Radio Station

Malawi

Alliance Contre La Pauvrete Au Mali

Mali

Village Farmers Initiative (VFI)

Nigeria

Forum International Des Femmes De L Espace Francophone

Republique Democratique du Congo

Solidarité Des Femmes Sur Le Fleuve Congo (Soffleco)

République Démocratique du Congo

Africaine De Recherche Et De Coopération Pour L’appui Au Développment Endogène (Arcade)

Senegal

Network Movement For Justice And Development

Sierra Leone

Reachout Salone

Sierra Leone

Community Settlement And Development Action Cosda

Somalia

National Sudanese Women Association

Sudan

Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (Thrdc)

Tanzania

Disability Peoples Forum Uganda

Uganda

SEATINI

Uganda

Resilient 40

Uganda

Contfone

Uganda

Civil Society Sdgs Campaign GCAP Zambia

Zambia

Economic Justice For Women Project (EJWP)

Zimbabwe

Climate Action Network Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Women In Politics Support Unit (WIPSU)

Zimbabwe

Economic Justice For Women Project

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe People’s Land Rights Movement

Zimbabwe

ASIA

COAST Foundation / Equitybd

Bangladesh

Equity Equity The capital put into an enterprise by the shareholders. Not to be confused with ’hard capital’ or ’unsecured debt’. And Justice Working Group Bangladesh (Equitybd)

Bangladesh

Centre For Environment, Human Rights & Development Forum

Bangladesh

Voices For Interactive Choice and Empowerment (VOICE)

Bangladesh

Bangladesh Krishok Federation

Bangladesh

Equitybd

Bangladesh

Association for Promotion Sustainable Development

India

Nadi Ghati Morcha

India

Mines Mineral and People

India

National Hawker Federation

India

All India Women’s Hawker Federation

India

Himalaya Niti Abhiyan

India

Samatha

India

Paryavaran Samvardhan Samiti

India

Yuva Shakti

India

SETU: Centre For Social Knowledge And Action

India

Lok Shakti Abhiyan

India

Lal Quila Hawker Union

India

Meena Bazar Hawker Association

India

Rehdi Patri Ekta Manch

India

Bunglow Road Jawahar Nagar Hawker Union

India

India Gate Hawker Union

India

Gtb Nagar Hawker Union

India

Chandni Chowk Hawker Union

India

Aadarsh Nagar Hawker Union

India

Bhagirathi Palace Hawker Union

India

Majnu Ka Tila Hawker Union

India

Kamgar Ekata Union, Maharashtra

India

Lohiya Vichar Munch Hawkers Union, Mumbai

India

Sahid Bhagatsingh Hakwers Union, Aurangabad

India

Ekata Hawkers Union, Maharashtra

India

Maharashtra Kantri Hawkers Mahasangh, Pune

India

All Arunachal Street Vendors Association

India

Foothpath Dukandar Redipatri Union, Ranchi

India

Thela Vyavsayi Ekta Union, Rajasthan

India

Street Vendors Union, Dungarpur

India

Dwarkesh Market Vendors Union Rajasmand

India

Shahpura Holl Mandi Fier, Mukherjee Chauk, Udaipur

India

Jaipur Pink City Street Vendors Association, Jaipur

India

Heritage City Thadi Thela Union Jaipur

India

Hawkers Sangram Samiti

India

Kolkata Men Hawkers Union

India

Road Side Vendors Association, Imphal

India

Redi Pateri Hakwers Union, Alahabad

India

Mirzapur Street Vendors Union

India

Samata – Assertion for People

India

Mines Minerals &People

India

SETU: Centre For Social Knowledge And Action

India

Forum For Gramsabha

India

President, Citizens Welfare Association

India

Chairperson, Csneha Foundation

India

Adivasi Ekta Parishad

India

Jan Chetnna Manch

India

Swadesh Gramotthan Samiti

India

Rainbow Warriors

India

Paryavaran Sanrakshan Samiti

India

Prasar

India

Narayan Singh Uikey Adivasi Vikash Samiti

India

Ulgulan Manch

India

Adivasi Ekta Parishad

India

Revanchal Dalit Adivasi Sewa Samiti

India

Adivasi Ekta Parishad

India

Anchalic Suraksha Committee

India

Venella Rural Development

India

Akhil Bhartiya Adivasi Mahasabha

India

Reach Law

India

Growthwatch

India

Indian Social Action Forum

India

Mines Minerals and People

India

People’s Coalition for the Rights to Water (KRuHA)

Indonesia

Trend Asia

Indonesia

PROGRES

Indonesia

Center For New Economic Order (CNEO)

Japan

Monitoring Sustainability Of Globalisation

Malaysia

Digo Bikas Institute

Nepal

National Campaign For Sustainable Development Nepal

Nepal

Rural Area Development Programme (RADP)

Nepal

Women Empowerment Against Poverty Of Nepal (WEAPon)

Nepal

Beyond Beijing Committee Nepal

Nepal

Human Rights Alliance

Nepal

Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum

Pakistan

Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee

Pakistan

Center For Migrant Advocacy

Philippines

WomanHealth Philippines

Philippines

Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK)

Philippines

Oriang Women’s Movement Inc.

Philippines

Aniban Ng Mga Manggagawa Sa Agrikultura (AMA)

Philippines

Centre For Environmental Justice

Sri Lanka

EUROPE

Coordination Office Of The Austrian Episcopal Conference - KOO

Austria

Recourse

Belgium

Ekumenická Akademie, Z. S.

Czech Republic

European Network On Debt And Development (EURODAD)

Europe

CCFD-Terre Solidaire

France

Plateforme Française Dette Et Développement (PFDD)

France

Informationsstelle Peru E.V.

Germany

Erlassjahr

Germany

World Economy, Ecology & Development - WEED E.V.

Germany

Financial Justice Ireland

Ireland

Debt Justice Norway

Norway

Bodi Svetloba NGO, Zavod BALI, NGO

Slovenia

Plataforma De Afectados Por La Hipoteca

Spain

Wemos

The Netherlands

Debt Justice UK

UK

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Caribbean Policy Development Centre

Barbados

Centro De Investigación Para La Acción Femenina (CIPAF)

Dominican Republic

Centro De Derechos Económicos Y Sociales - CDES

Ecuador

Asociacion Mujeres Emprendedoras De Alta Verapaz -Meav-

Guatemala

Movimiento Tzuk Kim-pop

Guatemala

Mexfam

Mexico

Red Latinoamericana Por Justicia Económica Y Social - LATINDADD

Perú

Forum Solidaridad Perú

Perú

Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA) and CHIRAPAQ Centre for Indigenous Cultures of Peru

Perú And The Americas

Fundacion Etnica Integral

Republica Dominicana

MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

Egyptian Initiative For Personal Rights (EIPR)

Egypt

Phenix Center

Jordan

Arab NGO Network For Development (ANND)

Lebanon

Menafem Movement For Economic, Development And Ecological Justice

Morocco

NORTH AMERICA

Institute For Justice And Democracy In Haiti

United States/Haiti

Center For Economic And Social Rights

US

WEDO

US