Nobel winners praise Norway for cancelling debts

Seven Nobel Peace Prize Laureates have today written to the Norwegian government praising their decision to cancel debts on the grounds of lender responsibility, and urging them to acknowledge publicly that the debts are illegitimate.

The debts which Norway has decided to cancel, being paid by countries including Sierra Leone, Ecuador, Peru and Jamaica, date back to loans taken out between 1977 and 1980. They were incurred in the context of Norway's 'Shipping Export Credit Campaign', during which the Norwegian government urged poor countries to take out large loans in order to buy Norwegian-built ships which in many cases they did not need and could not afford. The campaign did more for Norway’s ship-building industry than for the countries concerned. Ecuador, for instance, ended up with debts worth five times the original loan.

Norwegian campaigners have long been arguing that these debts are illegitimate and should be cancelled. The new Norwegian government appears to agree, and has been in discussion since it came into power in the autumn over how to cancel the loans. However, it is not clear whether Norway's government will state publicly that the debts are 'illegitimate' - that is, that the claims are being cancelled not just because they are burdensome to pay, but because they are morally and / or legally unjustifiable. The Nobel Peace Prize winners - seven winners from six countries - state that "it would be important for this decision to include a clear and public acknowledgement of the illegitimacy of the debts", explaining that it would be a "very positive signal for other governments in both the North and the South, confirming that it is possible to face old mistakes with truth and justice, and to establish new guidelines for relationships based on transparency and the full respect of human rights."

The Nobel laureates also express support for Norway's work in sponsoring studies on illegitimate debt at the World Bank and the United Nations. The letter is signed by Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Betty Williams (Northern Ireland, 1976), Jody Williams (USA, 1977), Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina, 1980), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (South Africa, 1984), Rigoberta Menchu Tum (Guatemala, 1992) and Shirin Ebadi (Iran, 2003).

Download the full text of the letter using the link on the right.
See the Norwegian debt campaign website.