wfn.org | LWI 2008-068 Lutheran Leaders, High-Ranking Government Representatives Confer at International Debt

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Lutheran Leaders, High-Ranking Government Representatives Confer
at International Debt Symposium
Church-Based Actors Seek Concrete Measures to Guarantee the
Poor’s Rights

GENEVA, 16 October 2008 (LWI) - 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. (689 words)

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:
www.lutheranupress.org/catalog/-p-95.html 

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

>*        *          *

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as ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian
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of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
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