Havana, Sep 26 (Prensa Latina) The foreign debt of the Third World infringes fundamental principles of international rights, including human rights, it was denounced Monday by a member of an international attorneys association attending the II World Assembly of Jubilee South meeting in Havana.


Fabio Marcelli, of International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), told Prensa Latina that the foreign debt also infringes the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples, leaving them without cooperation.



The Italian lawyer is taking part in the meeting of delegates from 40 countries, part of the huge network of campaigns, organizations, social, religious and political movements, called Jubilee South, which rejects payment of the foreign debt as immoral, unjust and fraudulent.



Illegitimacy of the foreign debt, for which poor countries pay more than 300 billion dollars a year, was reiterated in the opening of the 2nd Jubilee South World Assembly Monday.



These realities intensify the struggle against the debt of underdeveloped nations, and make people wonder how it is possible that the US spends two-thirds of the military expenses of the whole planet, or why 500 people in the world have the same income as 416 million.



South Jubilee was born as an international network during the first South-South Summit in South Africa in November 1999, and this second assembly comes twenty years after Cuban President Fidel Castro proclaimed it impossible for poor peoples to pay the foreign debt.



After twenty years, the battle is still necessary, the arguments are still valid, and the debt is still growing.



During its June congress in Paris, IADL advocated immediate suspension of payments to creditors and demanded an international conference with the participation of creditors and debtors.



IADL also promotes a report by the International Court of Justice, with a UN resolution, relative to repayment of foreign debt and international law.