November 2004
Yoko Kitazawa
Pacific Asia Resource Center
Tokyo
Japan
Dear participants of E-forum on Debt cancellation,
I forward the conclusion of the Workshop on Debt Audits which took place
in Brasilia. I think this text is good reference to our E-forum debate
on Debt Cancellation.
I should like also to ask Oscar to take into consideration of the points
raised by this conclusion, since it seems to represent the thinking of
Jubilee South on debt cancellation.
And I remind E-forum to respond Kunibert's comment, made in this forum
some time ago as well.
I hope Oscar would finalize his paper, by taking into consideration in
those papers.
For example, I think Kunibert's point on setting up of "ad hoc"
panels is practical to rescue immediately indebted poor countries, but
in the long term, it is necessary to have an international treaty and
the UN should take care. My view is that instead of calling "secretariat"
under ad hoc panels", it is better to name it "working team",
to avoid the fixed image of the word.
Yoko Kitazawa
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ELEMENTS FOR THE PROMOTION AND REALIZATION OF AUDITS
IN RESPONSE TO THE ILLEGITIMACY OF THE EXTERNAL DEBT
Conclusions of the International Workshop on Debt Auditing
Brasilia, November 9 - 11, 2004
For some time now, various campaigns and organizations concerned with
the question of Debt have been calling for the realization of official
Audits of the debt that is claimed of each of our countries. As part of
this initiative, we came together in this International Workshop and Seminar
on Debt Auditing, in Brasilia, in order to advance the political and methodological
debate on the importance and characteristics of the proposed Audits, as
well as to review the experiences of different countries in the region.
The ideas shared in the following text seek to contribute to the promotion
and realization of comprehensive Debt Audits. They also serve as an invitation
to movements and organizations throughout the continent to incorporate
this tool into their practices and strategies in response to the problem
of Debt.
1- WHY CONDUCT A DEBT AUDIT:
We reaffirm that the External Debt is a perverse mechanism of international
financial recycling, at the service of the capitalist system, that converts
poor countries into net exporters of capital; and furthermore, we reaffirm
that
- the External Debt impoverishes our countries - including the so-called
medium income countries - and condemns our peoples to misery, violating
our integral human rights, our sovereignty, and our right to self-determination;
- it seeks to mortgage our futures, increasing the dependency of our countries
through the imposition of new credits and conditionalities;
- the External Debt is an instrument of the neoliberal project of financial
and commercial liberalization, whose advance is now being negotiated in
diverse levels including the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), bilateral
and subregional Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the U.S., agreements
between the European Union and Latin America, and the World Trade Organization;
- it is a mechanism for generating a net accumulation of Ecological and
Social Debt, due to the orientation of the credits received as well as
the pressure that it exercises on our countries to export and obtain hard
currencies;
- it leads to a deepening of the violence in our societies, the economic
and social gaps, and gender inequality;
- the External Debt is at the service of militarization and arms proliferation
and leads to the criminalization of struggles being waged against it and/or
in favor of the recognition and repayment of Social, Ecological, and Historical
Debts;
- in most cases, the process of External Debt accumulation is tainted
with illegitimacy and illegality, including fraudulent and corrupt dealings
and the leonine manner in which our countries are obliged to pay usurious
amounts, commissions, and interests, that seek to convert us into eternal
debtors;
- the External Debt also has a legal appearance and political significance
that lend weight to the apparent obligation to comply with the terms and
conditions determined by the lenders, including the international financial
organizations such as the IMF, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development
Bank, among others.
We therefore consider it necessary to undertake a detailed analysis of
the motives and manner in which the External Debts have been contracted,
the amounts that have been repaid in interests and debt service, and the
consequences that this has had and will have for our peoples and our countries.
This Debt Audit must reflect the political and strategic dimensions of
the External Debt, requiring thus a rigorous design and the broad-based,
multisectoral, and interdisciplinary participation of civil society.
Such an Audit forms part of the State's obligation to render accounts
to the citizenry. It is also a reflection of our right as peoples to be
informed, to participate in the decision-making on policies that affect
us, and to exercise control and vigilance over governmental action.
2- OBJECTIVES OF THE DEBT AUDIT
- Demonstrate the illegitimacy and illegality of the External Debts claimed
of our countries;
- Establish the fact that the External Debt has been amply repaid and
that it is therefore incorrect to continue repayments;
- Demonstrate the co-responsibility of the lenders together with the governments
and major economic groups in our countries, contributing concretely toward
the sanctioning of those responsible for the crimes and human rights violations
that have been perpetrated;
- Demonstrate the relation between the External Debt and the damaging
of ecosystems and the non-fulfillment on the part of states and the international
community of the obligations contained in international human rights treaties
and covenants;
- Show that the lender countries and institutions have in fact become
debtors who owe a Social and Ecological Debt to the countries and peoples
they have impoverished;
- Make visible the relation between the External Debt, free trade agreements,
and militarization as part of the same model;
- Strengthen social organization and mobilization in response to the External
Debt;
- Contribute to the elaboration of joint strategies and policies among
our countries in order to confront the pretension of the lenders to condemn
our peoples to repaying indefinitely the External Debt, converting it
into a veritable Eternal Debt and a Silent Assassin;
- Strengthen movement toward the repudiation and annulment of that Debt
which is not owed, the restitution of what has been paid unjustly, and
the reparation of its consequences.
3- METODOLOGY AND PROCEEDINGS OF A DEBT AUDIT
- The Audits should be integral and multicriterial, incorporating the
use of a broad array of indicators which allow the investigation and substantiation
of the characteristics and processes of accumulation of the External Debts
together with the Ecological, Social, and Historical Debts.
- They must be participatory instruments, of a multisectoral and interdisciplinary
character, capable of engaging the broadest possible span of political,
social, economic, spiritual, and cultural organizations and movements
both nationally and internationally.
- The Audits should be a vehicle for information sharing and formation,
enabling the whole of society to perceive and evaluate the incidence of
the Public Debt in official policies and budgets.
- They should contribute to the unmasking of the publicly established
ideological discourse around the External Debt, a discourse which promotes
acceptance, resignation, and passivity in the face of the true character
of the debt and the possibility of developing alternatives.
- The Audits should be conducted on the basis of trustworthy data that
is processed in a rigorous, transparent and socially reliable and responsible
manner.
4- CONCLUSIONS AND FOLLOWUP
- In present-day Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in other
parts of the world, we have seen a multiplication of initiatives and actions
against the payment of the External Debt, reflecting a clear willingness
on the part of persons and organizations to repudiate it. In this context
we should promote the realization of Audits as a strategic tool which
can help build popular capacity and power together with other forms of
struggle and mobilization which are aimed at repudiating and putting an
end to the illegitimate and illegal External Debt and its consequences.
- The public authorities of our countries, demonstrating tremendous insensitivity
and a servile conduct in the face of the dictates of the centers of international
finances and power, continue paying the External Debt on the basis of
an ever-greater accumulation of the Public, Social, and Ecological Debts.
In this context we must reiterate to our governments our demand that they
suspend payments on the so-called External Debt, as well as the contracting
of new credits.
In order to achieve our objectives, we recognize the importance of more
and better coordination, both regionally and globally, as well as the
need to strengthen strategic alliances that favor the processes of accumulating
social and political power. In this spirit we call for the generation
of a broad-based, strong, and pluralistic movement throughout our continent
and globally, capable of demanding and making possible the realization
of comprehensive Debt Audits in each of our countries
As part of this endeavor, we call on social movements and organizations
in particular to participate actively in the Popular Assembly of Creditors
of the Social, Ecological, and Historical Debt, as well as the Workshop
on Audits of the External, Social, Ecological and Historical Debts, both
of which will take place during the V World Social Forum, in Porto Alegre,
Brazil, in January 2005.
Participants in the International Workshop were representatives of the
following organizations and networks:
Alianza de los Pueblos del Sur Acreedores de la Deuda Ecologica
Alianza Social Continental-Comite de Mujeres
Auditoria Cidada (Brasil)
Campanha Jubileu Sul e contra a ALCA (Brasil)
Caritas Brasileira
Central Latinoamericana de Trabajadores CLAT
Centro de Derechos Economicos y Sociales CDES (Ecuador)
Conamuri (Paraguay)
Dialogo 2000 (Argentina)
Estrategia Andina, Centroamericana e Amazonica por el Desendeudamiento
Iniciativa Paraguaya NO al ALCA
Jubileo Sur/Americas
Marcha Mundial de las Mujeres Colombia
Mesa de Trabajo Mujeres y Economia (Colombia)
PACS (Brasil)
Plataforma Interamericana de DH, Democracia y Desarrollo PIDHDD
Red de Mujeres Transformando la Economia-Colombia
Contacts:
Jubileo Sur/Americas
Piedras 730, (1070) Buenos Aires
jubileosur@wamani.apc.org
www.jubileesouth.org/sp
Campanha Jubileu/Auditoria Cidada
jubileubrasil@terra.com.br
www.jubileubrasil.org.br
www.divida-auditoriacidada.org.br
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