The first book to address the links between sovereign debt and human rights. Authors are renowned jurists, economics, historians and social scientists, all of which examine the links between debt and human rights from a variety of angles. The book is structured around five basic parts. The first sets out the historical, political and economic context of sovereign debt. Indeed, without understanding how debt accumulates, why it is necessary and to whom it is owed, it is impossible to fully comprehend the full range of arguments about its impact on human rights. The second part effectively addresses the human rights dimension of the three types of sovereign lenders, namely inter-governmental financial institutions (IFIs) (chiefly those from the World Bank group and those within the EU framework), sovereigns and private lenders. Part II examines also debt-influencing mechanisms, and with the exception of vulture funds that will be analysed in Part V, here we examine the role of export credits, credit rating agencies and bilateral investment treaties. Part III goes on to make the link between debt and the manner in which the accumulation of sovereign debt violates human rights. From there, Part IV examines some of the conditions imposed by structural adjustment programs on debtor states with a view to servicing their debt. All of these conditionalities have been shown to exacerbate the debt itself at the expense also of economic sovereignty. It is thus explained in Part IV that such measures are not only injurious to the entrenched rights of peoples, but that moreover they exacerbate the borrower’s economic situation. Finally, Part V addresses the range of practical responses to sovereign debt, such as odious debt claims, unilateral repudiation, establishment of debt audit committees and others.
