Jubilee Debt Coalition

Jubilee Debt Coalition (Drop The Debt) is a coalition of national organisations and local groups around the UK, calling for the unpayable debts of the poorest countries to be cancelled. The Coalition is also known as Jubilee Debt Campaign and focuses on developing countries' debt.

History

The Coalition was formed as a successor organisation to the Jubilee 2000 Coalition. Many campaigners felt that it was necessary to continue working together to monitor the G8's promise to deliver $100Bn of debt relief at Cologne in 1999, and make further progress on the cancellation of debts the poorest countries.

The name was chosen in 1995/6, as preparations were gathering pace for the celebration of the millennium. The concept was that justice and poverty alleviation through the cancellation of debts would be a fitting celebration for the millennium. The concept of debt cancellation and celebration is linked to the Old Testament concept of Jubilee, which meant that every 50 years, people sold into slavery, or land sold due to bankruptcy, were redeemed.

Campaigns

The key aim of JDC is debt cancellation and the alleviation of poverty. Educational and campaign materials have been produced on the legitimacy of debt, power and corruption of both lenders and borrowers.

Jubilee Debt Campaign has been most recently in the news because of vulture funds, where a company buys up debts or securities in a distressed environment, and then sues for the full amount 'owing'. The most recent case, in the news in April and May 2007, concerned a company called Donegal International and Zambia.

The current campaign, 'Lift the lid on bad loans' focuses on money owed for historical debts that are in some way dubious, having been given irresponsibly or to suit the lenders' own ends. The campaign encourages UK citizens to call on the Secretary of State to hold an audit of such loans and to cancel any that are found to be dubious in such a manner.

The 2006 campaign, 'Cut the Strings' focused on the harmful and unfair conditions often attached to debt relief. (See also HIPC initiative - Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative). The world’s poorest countries are at times required by the agencies of the G8 (The IMF and World Bank) to cut public spending and privatise health-care and other services to secure debt relief. If the country being considered for debt relief does not stay 'on track', cancellation may be delayed or withheld.

As a result of decisions made at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, following the Make Poverty History campaign and Live 8 event, JDC called on the British government to return money received from Nigeria as part of a debt cancellation condition.

Jubilee Debt Campaign was an active member of the Make Poverty History Coalition, one of whose key aims was to "Drop the Debt," along with "Make Trade Fair" (Trade Justice Coalition) and "More and Better Aid."

Location

The Coalition's Secretariat is in Islington, London.

See also

* Jubilee 2000
* Jubilee USA
* Odious debt

External links

* [http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk] Jubilee Debt Campaign
* [http://www.jubileeusa.org/]