December 19, 2001
The Jubilee Debt Campaign are launching a stark new poster campaign on 1 January, a year after the end of the Jubilee 2000 and at the start of the year of the Queen's Golden Jubilee. The campaign exposes the fact that only a fraction of the debt relief needed to give the world's poor a new start has been promised, let alone delivered.
Under the headline "Still waiting for the Jubilee", the posters point out that only 15% of the unpayable debt of the world's poor has been cancelled and calls on Tony Blair to go much further on debt. The posters will go up in Churches, community centres, libraries and work-places around the country in the New Year, from 1 January.
Stephen Rand of Tearfund and Chair of JDC said: "We keep being told that the debt problem has been dealt with, but the goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015 will be no more than a cruel joke on the poor, if more debt is not cancelled. Economic developments since September 11th make this even more apparent."
Ashok Sinha of the Jubilee Debt Campaign said: "Over one billion people living in the world's poorest countries are still desperately in need of debt relief. This is the year of the Queen's Golden Jubilee but the world's poor are still waiting for their promised Jubilee."
Beverley Duckworth of the World Development Movement said: "As we enter the third year of the new millennium, many desperately poor countries are still spending more on debt repayments to the richest than they do on health or education. The continuing debt crisis shames rich governments. Claims to be friends of the world's poor mean nothing while the debt remains, and until it goes away, neither will we."
Notes for editors
1. Jubilee Debt Campaign is a successor to Jubilee 2000, consisting of a coalition of almost 50 national organisations and over 60 local/regional groups. Tearfund and The World Development Movement are founder member organisations of JDC.
2. 52 of the world's poorest countries owe an unpayable historical debt to the rich world of over $300bn. Only about $18bn of this has so far been cancelled, with a total of $54bn of cancellation due to occur "over time". These correspond to merely 5% (actual) and around 15% (to occur) cancellation of unpayable poor country debt stocks.
3. Quote from Kofi Annan taken from the UN Secretary General's 21st Century Action Plan: "Let us, above all, be clear that, without a convincing programme of debt relief to start the new millennium, our objective of halving world poverty by 2015 will be only a pipe dream."
4. JDC Patrons include Glenys Kinnock MEP, Colin Lucas (Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University), Bishop Mano Rumalshah (Secretary of USPG), Larry Elliot (Economics Editor, The Guardian), Rev Michael Taylor.
5. JDC is calling for a 100% cancellation of the unpayable debt of the world's poorest countries, by fair and transparent means, with refinancing (as necessary) of the international financial institutions.
6. Alongside the poster campaign, JDC supporters will be lobbying their MPs in the New Year to encourage them it restate their commitment to debt cancellation.
7. An electronic version of the poster is available in various formats from JDC or WDM.
More Information on Debt Relief
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