October 16, 2008

GENEVA – Representatives of governments, churches and their partner agencies, United Nations bodies, civil society organizations and legal experts are among participants in an international symposium on illegitimate debt jointly organized by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Church of Sweden and Norwegian Church Aid, 20-23 October in Oslo, Norway.

Co-sponsored by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the symposium seeks to define the general legal principles that may be applicable to sovereign debt and its impacts on human development. Participants including LWF President Bishop Mark S. Hanson and General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko will also examine relevant political initiatives in this area, with the aim to develop proposals for future multilateral political action to bring the subject of sovereign debt under the rule of law, justice and ethics.

The organizers point out that foreign debt continues to threaten the rights and dignity of millions of human beings all over the world especially in poor countries, because of the failure to address the systemic problems and contradictions of lending and debt management practices at a global level.

However, there are encouraging exceptions, which will be elaborated at the three-day meeting. These include the Norwegian government's decision in 2006 to write off the debt of five African and South American countries, and Ecuador's establishment in 2007 of a ‘debt audit commission' to consider the relevant legal, political and social factors that led to the country's accumulation of illegitimate debt.

"It is the hope of poor countries that through the Oslo symposium, the world will recognize the immorality of such debts and how external debt ... saps the lifeblood of poor countries," Bishop Victoria Cortez Rodriguez, LWF vice-president for the Latin America and Caribbean region told Lutheran World Information (LWI).

The LWF program on illegitimate debt, launched in 2005, is located in the Latin American region.

While commending the symposium organizers "for bringing together so many important people from Norway and around the world to discuss the debt burden that affects so many poor countries," Norway's Minister for Finance Kristin Halvorsen emphasized the need to "look at the conditions that were attached to such loans when they were issued, and identify who it is that actually benefits from these." Halvorsen will deliver the keynote address.

Ecuadorian Minister of State Ricardo Patino, one of the main presenters, commended the Rafael Correa government for its "political courage" to carry out a comprehensive audit of Ecuador's public debt and analyze its legitimacy. During the 1976 and 2006 period covered by the audit, the debt grew from USD 1,174.6 million to USD 14,245.6 million, he told LWI. Yet, only 14 percent of this amount was invested in society, said Patino, who chairs the government's Commission for a Comprehensive Audit of Public Debt.

"We have a situation of outright robbery of the country and its citizens by international financial institutions and the former public officials involved," he said. Ecuador, he added, was counting on the international community's support as it defends its historical right to recover not only its legitimacy, but also its dignity.

Norway's Minister for Environment and Development Erik Solheim said discussions on creditor co-responsibility, illegitimate debt and responsible lending were important elements of the international debt debate, which his country actively supports. "The discussion of odious and illegitimate debt [is] important to ensure more responsible lending in the future and avoid a new debt crisis," he said.

Liberia, which will be represented at the symposium by the Deputy Minister for Finance Hon. Tarnue Mawolo, owes more than USD 3 million, which were not spent on development projects "but went in the wrong directions," according to Bishop Sumoward E. Harris, Lutheran Church in Liberia.

Harris cites an April 2008 letter which he wrote with Church of Sweden Archbishop Anders Wejryd to the Swedish government, requesting cancellation of debt incurred through the sale of two naval boats to Liberia's previous government. He urges debt cancellation to enable Liberia, and other countries in similar situations to carry out their crucial poverty reduction strategies.

The program for the International Symposium on Illegitimate Debt is available on the LWF Web site at: http://www.lutheranworld.org/Special_Events/Oslo_2008/Program-International_Symposium_Illegitimate_Debt_2008.pdf.

See also new LWF publication, "Not Just Numbers – Examining the Legitimacy of Foreign Debts" at: http://www.lutheranupress.org/catalog/-p-95.html.

You will receive an update about media contacts during the symposium in Oslo.

Lutheran World Information