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 Ecológica
Alianza Social Continental-Comité de Mujeres
Auditoria Cidada (Brasil)
Campanha Jubileu Sul e contra a ALCA (Brasil)
Cáritas Brasileira
Central Latinoamericana de Trabajadores CLAT
Centro de Derechos Económicos y Sociales CDES (Ecuador)
Conamuri (Paraguay)
Diálogo 2000 (Argentina)
Estrategia Andina, Centroamericana e Amazónica por el Desendeudamiento
Iniciativa Paraguaya NO al ALCA
Jubileo Sur/Américas
Marcha Mundial de las Mujeres Colombia
Mesa de Trabajo Mujeres y Economía (Colombia)
PACS (Brasil)
Plataforma Interamericana de DH, Democracia y Desarrollo PIDHDD
Red de Mujeres Transformando la Economía-Colombia Contacts: Jubileo Sur/Américas
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