Debt

“No nation, bank, or international financial institution has the right to extract money for the repayment of debt when this will undermine the basic human dignity and rights of the citizens of that country, particularly the poor. The cancellation of debts may not be sufficient to bring an end to poverty in highly indebted countries, but it is most certainly a necessary condition.”
New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, An Intolerable Burden, 1998

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Debt Burden

The burden of debt of the world’s poorest countries has become one of the single largest causes of poverty and exclusion in the world.  In his Jubilee message, Tertio Millennio Adveniente,  Pope John Paul II called for Christians to raise their voices on behalf of the poor of the world,  prosposing the year of Jubilee as an appropriate time to give thought to reducing if not cancelling international debts of many nations.




Debt Cancellation

The announcement from the G8 Finance Ministers meeting in July 2005 has helped give a new push for debt relief and is a welcome step.  But this is still only a half measure.  It will only benefit an initial 18 countries, and leaves some of the debts of these countries still intact.

What Caritas is doing

As part of the international Jubilee movement, Caritas joined with organisations throughout the world in seeking a debt relief for the millions of people who are impoverished by the debt burden on developing countries. Caritas continues to play a lead role in the Jubilee Aotearoa Debt Action network. 

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Caritas continues to seek cancellation of all external debt of the most impoverished countries without harmful conditions, and the establishment of a fair and transperant debt arbitration process for the future.

Be part of the solution!