Campaigners like you have fought against the unfair debts that crippled some of the world’s poorest countries. We rightly celebrated when debt relief helped lift some of this burden.

Now that progress is under threat.

Vulture funds make money by buying up old debt against developing countries, and using the courts to sue them for it in order to reap massive profits. That’s just wrong.

The problem is, that while the vulture funds law brought in the UK last year finally stopped this activity happening here, this doesn’t currently extend to Jersey.

Sign up now to ask the Chief Minister of Jersey to extend the UK law to their courts too.

Right now, vulture fund FG Hemisphere is using Jersey’s courts to claim $100m from the Democratic Republic of Congo, on a debt thought to have been bought for $3.3m.

After having much of their debt cancelled by the IMF and World Bank just last year, the impact that this will have on the DRC, and people living in extreme poverty, is just unimaginable. This shouldn’t be happening – let alone so close to home.

Join ONE and the Jubilee Debt Campaign UK in asking Jersey’s Chief Minister to take a stand, by extending the law that already exists here in the UK. It’s simply not right to turn a blind eye.

Thanks for your support on this, and please ask your friends to sign up too.

This last week has seen the murder of the South’s Co-operatives and Rural Development Minister Jimmy Lemi Milla in what is thought to be a personal rather than political dispute. In addition, clashes flared up again in the South’s Jonglei state between forces loyal to George Athor (a rogue rebel leader in the south) and South Sudan’s army. Mr. Athor previously took up arms last year, alleging fraud in state elections, but he signed a ceasefire last month just before the referendum vote. However last Wednesday fighting in the region resumed, with more than 100 people reportedly killed, of which 39 are thought to be civilians.

In separate clashes another 54 people were killed during fighting on the weekend in Southern Sudan’s oil-rich Upper Nile state. For many in the South there are still many unresolved issues and tension remains high along the oil-rich border regions. These issues have been highlighted by some as another sign of the extreme difficulties that the South faces. Stressing that the South will struggle to effectively govern itself and bring its people together by July 9 without coordinated and long-term international support.

There has been some encouraging news however.

It is reported that the UK and US are seriously looking into the potential for debt relief for the region. While this will be a long process, debt relief should free up finances for the South, and would be extremely useful for helping tackle some of the difficult internal conflicts and infrastructure needs.

In other news the South is moving closer to finalizing a name. The ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the South has officially adopted “South Sudan” as a name for the new state whose existence will be formalized on July 9, 2011. This is an important step in helping the South develop their own unified identity and so hopefully unify the citizens in tackling their own internal problems.

If you’re curious to learn more about the Sudan vote and what that might mean for the fate of the country, we encourage you to listen to Center for Global Development Fellow Ben Leo’s podcast on Sudan’s debt. The $35 billion external debt is a critical issue in the upcoming referendum — if oil-rich Southern Sudan becomes independent, Northern Sudan will lose access to the region’s resources and become unable to use the oil revenue to pay back their debts.

Mr. Leo, an expert on debt sustainability in low-income countries, outlines a few potential scenarios for post-referendum debt division between North and South Sudan. Listen to his podcast on the Center for Global Development website.

One of the US Treasury’s top officials gave ONE a nice shout out from stage for all we did to make this day possible.

It was only 9 months ago when the 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti. Rebuilding continues slowly. But debt cancellation is nearly complete. Nine months is like a nanosecond in debt relief terms. We should all be proud of helping make this happen.

Here are some details about what’s included in this bill (HR 4899). It includes $2.8 billion in funding to support critical relief and recovery efforts in Haiti.  Specifically, the bill provides $913 million in international security funding and economic assistance for humanitarian relief, reconstruction, law enforcement and peacekeeping initiatives.  The bill also includes $465 million for International Disaster Assistance to respond to humanitarian emergencies and funding to cancel existing debts owed by Haiti– which was the focus of ONE’s effort. The bill also supports U.S. Treasury Department programs to strengthen the country’s financial systems and $96.5 million for increased peacekeeping assessments for the U.N. mission in Haiti.

This was a major victory for the people of Haiti. Great job ONE TEAM!

To help with recovery efforts, more than 200,000 ONE members joined our successful campaign to erase Haiti’s one billion dollars in debt. It was a huge victory for Haiti and a proud moment for ONE. And I’m writing to you today because ONE members can make a big difference in Haiti once again.

Two months after the quake, our president pledged to give more than one billion dollars to Haiti for long-term rebuilding. But Congress still needs to pass the bill that contains this critical funding. Will you join us in asking Congress to follow through on America’s commitment to Haiti?

Ask Congress today to quickly pass the bill with long-term funding for Haiti:

Our petition reads:

Dear Senator,

Six months after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, please support quick passage of US assistance to Haiti for reconstruction and debt relief.

Thanks to the heroic work of the Haitian people, tireless volunteers and NGOs, the small island nation has made it through six hard months. But as the country fades from the headlines, we need to remember that the streets are still filled with rubble; families are still sleeping in tents; and people still need jobs.

The people of Haiti deserve much more than the bare necessities of day-to-day survival. They deserve to thrive—to rebuild better and stronger than before.

We promised that they wouldn’t have to do this alone.

And that’s why this funding from the US is so critical. While the work will be hard and the rebuilding time-consuming, this funding will help the country start to recover—by reconstructing homes to protect people from hurricanes and other natural disasters and building schools and hospitals to educate girls and help mothers deliver babies in a clean, safe space.

Will you let Congress know that we must pass the bill for Haiti now?

Let’s join together again and show the people of Haiti that we haven’t forgotten about them. Let’s show Haiti that we’re ready to help for the long-term.

The Debt2Health agreement helps redirect money from servicing debt to improving public health. Australia will cancel AUD$75 million of Indonesia’s debt and Indonesia will put half of this amount into national programs to fight tuberculosis through the Global Fund. These additional resources will be particularly useful as Indonesia has the world’s third highest rate of tuberculosis.

Executive Director of the Global Fund, Michel Kazatchkine commended this Debt2Health agreement, saying:

In order to reach and sustain the level of funding we need in the fight against the most deadly epidemics of our time, we must make use of innovative financing opportunities like Debt2Health. We are delighted that Australia has joined the initiative and are very grateful for the trust that it shows in our work.

Over the years, ONE has worked on ensuring debt relief for the poorest countries and finding innovative sources of financing for health, so it is very good news indeed to see them coming together in this Debt2Health agreement for the benefit of Indonesians.

Liberia started the HIPC process two years ago with US$4.9 billion in debt, and potential annual repayments that overshadowed their entire annual budgets! Throughout the period of Liberia’s civil war and the resulting crisis, loans were not serviced and interest and penalties accumulated. By reaching completion point, Liberia has passed the 12 triggers stipulated by the World Bank and the IMF and today, Liberia has had $4.6 billion of their multilateral debt has been cancelled.

This action is a recognition of the tremendous efforts taken to transform Liberia, under the leadership of President Johnson-Sirleaf, and is an endorsement of the progress made in public financial management, debt management, governance, social service provision and the implementation of a poverty reduction strategy.

This decision now opens up more fiscal space for Liberia, allowing them the opportunity to embark on more development programs that will help expand the economy whilst continuing to tackle poverty. It also paves the way for additional debt relief. Liberia still has a way to go before we can declare victory. The Paris club, which holds Liberia’s bilateral debt, includes wealthy countries that meet under the Chairmanship of the French Ministry of Finance. Their next meeting is in September and the HIPC completion news certainly positions Liberia to make the best case possible.

6 months on we thought it would be useful to report back on what happened next.

At the handover of the petition during the G7 finance ministers summit in the small Arctic Canadian town of Iqaluit (the first ONE petition to be delivered above the Arctic Circle!) we welcomed the news that the G7 had agreed to support debt relief.

According to our friends at the Jubilee Debt Campaign Venezuela cancelled $295 million of debts at the end of January, while at the end of March the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank together forgave a combined total of $472 million.

That leaves Haiti’s only outstanding debts at the moment being held by Taiwan and the IMF. Taiwan is difficult as many of these debts are held by commercial creditors who are unwilling to forgive them. The IMF, however, is currently working on a process to cancel Haiti’s remaining debts, though this hasn’t happened as yet.

The process of rebuilding Haiti will be a long one, but as ONE members we can celebrate the fact that a country facing so many obstacles on the road to recovery has, at least, one less injustice to face: Haitians will no longer be saddled with the debts accumulated by previous governments.

More details from the official press release:

Debt relief under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative from all Liberia’s creditors was estimated at US$ 2.7 billion in end-June 2007 present value terms. Debt relief from the IMF would total US$730 million—the IMF’s biggest ever HIPC contribution for a single country—and from the World Bank’s IDA, US$374 million.

After reaching the HIPC completion point, Liberia also becomes eligible for further nominal debt reduction from IDA (US$66.9 million) and the African Development Bank (US$17.2 million) under the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) and beyond-HIPC assistance from the IMF (SDR117.4 million or US$173 million) and the EU Special Debt Relief Initiative (US$0.9 million).

As a result of this relief, Liberia will no longer face a heavy debt service burden in relation to its revenue and foreign exchange resources.

The Boards determined that Liberia has taken the necessary policy actions to reach the completion point, and therefore debt relief from both the HIPC Initiative and MDRI becomes irrevocable. Liberia has successfully implemented its poverty reduction strategy and maintained a stable macroeconomic environment, despite the global economic crisis.

“We welcome the concerted efforts made by Liberia to obtain this debt relief—this will help attract new investment and generate much needed opportunities,” said Chris Lane, IMF mission chief for Liberia. “Liberia can now mobilize additional resources to rebuild the road network and the electricity supply system, providing the infrastructure needed to allow economic growth, while continuing to expand the health care and education systems. Liberia will also be able to further develop its own financial market and channel private savings to productive uses. We wish to acknowledge the efforts by the international community to finance Liberia’s debt relief, with over 100 members of the IMF making exceptional contributions beyond the normal terms granted to heavily indebted poor countries.”