The Annual Eurodad Conference meeting in Olso had the privilege to welcome Minister Ricardo Patiño of Ecuador and a senior representative of the Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim.
As participants to this conference, we congratulate both governments for their active involvement in the issue of illegitimate debt. The Ecuadorian government has created a debt audit commission. The Norwegian government cancelled shipping export debts and recognised lender co-responsibility, and also commissioned official studies on odious debt. We also note the Soria Moria declaration call for the definition and then cancellation of illegitimate debt.
Recently, by working together, a few governments have successfully put important but much debated issues on the agenda of the international community. This happened on the issue of innovative finance with the creation of a quadripartite group in 2004 and again with the launch, by the Norwegian government, of the international task force on capital flight. These initiatives are already beginning to have an impact on international policy making.
Illegitimate debt is a similarly urgent issue. Civil society organisations, academics and others have been providing evidence of this problem for many years. Although international institutions and governments have joined this discussion, there is wide recognition that many issues need further clarification and research. In particular, the multi-stakeholder consultation on debt held in 2005 under the auspices of the UN agreed on the need to “examine such issues as a code of conduct for sovereign debtors and their creditors [and] operationalization of the doctrine of ‘odious debt’”[1].
Thus we are calling on the governments of Norway and Ecuador to launch an international task force on illegitimate debt. This task force would bring together other interested governments, parliamentarians, international institutions, academics and civil society representatives from South and North. It would examine and contribute to clarifying the concepts of illegitimate and odious debt and how they would be applied. It would also feed into the Financing for Development process leading to Doha and other relevant initiatives and fora.
Official proposals submitted to the Government of Norway by Ricardo Patiño Aroca, President of CAIC (Ecuador’s debt audit commission), Secretary of the Coast – Ecuador, Franklin Canelos Castillo, Vice – president of CAIC and Patricia Dávila Aveiga Executive Coordinator of CAIC
1. We recognize as our duty towards Norway, to clarify the facts definitively as they relate to the credit granted by the Government of Norway to Ecuador. Given the important expression of unilateral recognition of co-responsibilities by Norway, this supports the historical memory of our nations and helps ensure that within bilateral relationships this never happens again. For such a reason, we would like to request from Norway – in order to support the deepening of the research process on debt that Ecuador held with Norway for the purchase of ships – that the government deepen its research into the ship export campaign on issues such as for example who benefited from these transactions, what happened to the ships and how such an unfortunate outcome came about. The Norwegian Campaign for debt cancellation (SLUG) jointly with the Ecuadorian national debt group should be in charge of such studies.
2. To support the constitution of an international working commission conformed by Norwegian and Ecuadorian government delegates, EURODAD and international civil societies, which will promote research and debate about the illegitimacy of debt and the construction of a new international financial architecture. This initiative has been presented by Norwegian and Ecuadorian civil society, EURODAD and supported by the international debt movement.
3. To support, with the cooperation of the Governments of Norway, Ecuador and other countries of Latin America and Europe, the submission of an Advisory Opinion to the International Court of Justice of the Hague and/or the Inter American Court of Human Rights on the co-responsibility of creditor states and debtors within the processes of indebtedness and their effects on the effective exercise of Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights. This presupposes that, besides the important political back-up, a high level team, specialized in International Law, Human Rights and Social Sciences be constituted, so that it formulates the corresponding application and will follow the corresponding steps.
