Development

Global: IMF and the World Bank found guilty

Asian Peoples Tribunal on Poverty and Debt

2006-09-20, Issue 270

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/37242

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VERDICT & SENTENCE We, the Judges of this Asian Peoples Tribunal on Poverty and Debt, after a most careful consideration of the testimonies brought here by advocate witnesses find the Respondents, the IMF and the World Bank, guilty of the following charges:

Asian Peoples Tribunal on Poverty and Debt

One day session in Battam , Indonesia In time for the annual meeting of the IMF-WB, September 19-20, Singapore

Contact information: ipftribunal@gmail.com

VERDICT & SENTENCE We, the Judges of this Asian Peoples Tribunal on Poverty and Debt, after a most careful consideration of the testimonies brought here by advocate witnesses find the Respondents, the IMF and the World Bank, guilty of the following charges:

- the intensification of poverty and deprivation,
- violation of basic human rights,
- curtailment of basic political and civil liberties,
- undermining of sovereign and democratic governance, and
- subversion of the right to development attendant to and resulting from the debt problem.

Their responsibility lies in policies and actions that make them either active perpetrators and/or knowing accomplices.

This Tribunal acknowledges the verdict of the International People's Tribunal on Debt held at the World Social Forum 2002 as summarized below.

1.That all the accumulated debt of the South to the North is illegitimate and has in fact been paid back many times over; and should be immediately repudiated an cancelled;
2.In return for the wealth illegitimately transferred to the North from theSouth, the countries of the South should be provided reasonable compensation, to determine the magnitude and manner of payment of which a Global Commission on Debt should be constituted.

3.That debt dependence, created by the above accused through the means described, leads to economic and political conditions that result in social deprivation that amounts to a creeping process of economic and social genocide; and that
4.besides being reprehensible on moral and humanitarian grounds, is a violation of existing international law as embodied, inter alia, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Covenant 169 of the International Labor Organization on indigenous peoples, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the universally recognized right of peoples to self-determination.

5.International institutions which serve as agents to coordinate, oversee and guarantee debt flows, such as the IMF and the World Bank, should be decommissioned and any residual useful role served by them should be handed over to more democratically-managed international institutions.
6.Besides social mobilization to bring pressure on governments in the North and the South to implement these recommendations, the Tribunal calls on people to use supplementary legal procedures such as petitions in the International Court of Justice at The Hague to bring individual instances of violation of individual social and human rights to trial and force governments to implement these recommendations.

As part of our solemn public duty, we serve notice and also call upon governments to:

• restore and uphold rights of citizens and communities to control and access natural resources and basic services.......
r• stop corporatization and privatization of basic services, and natural resources a• Ensure that trade agreements are consistent with International Human Rights Commitments E• not enter into such trade and investment agreements that grant local and foreign investors - `RIGHTS' without matching obligations u• ensure peoples' right to information This Tribunal notes that the Petitioners --- peoples organizations, citizens groups, social movements and NGOs from various countries in Asia -- are likely to continue challenging the IMF-WB.

The APTPD recognizes as legitimate the following demands:

1. Immediate and 100 percent cancellation of multilateral debts as part of the total cancellation of debts claimed from the South, without externally imposed conditionalities.
2.Open transparent and participatory External Audit of the lending operations and related policies of the IMF and the WB.
3.Removal of all conditionalities inherent in neoliberal policies and projects.

In order that they might directly experience and understand the harsh conditions under which IFI policies have forced millions of people to live and suffer, we the Judges of this Tribunal direct the President, Managing Director and other top officials of the respondents IMF-WB to spend a minimum of six months with marginalized communities without the security of WB salaries and perquisites.

By so doing, we hope that they will be compelled to review their actions and calculate and quantify the damages wrought by their policies or people.
These amounts should be paid back as reparations.

Finally, this Tribunal thus calls on global society to stand with the Petitioners and demonstrate their commitment to the dignity and worth of the human person and the economic right of peoples. The widespread and flagrant abuse, subjugation and impoverishment of the people for whom advocate witnesses spoke out cannot be allowed to continue.

Signed:

Hon. Lalita Ramdas Hon. Rene Magtubo Hon. Thomas Deve September 17, 2006, Battam , Indonesia

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