The Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM), formerly called the Committee for the Cancellation of the Third World Debt (CCTWD), is an international network of activists founded on 15 March 1990 in Belgium that campaigns for the cancellation of debts in developing countries and for "the creation of a world respectful of people’s fundamental rights, needs and liberties.

Aims

CADTM's main aim is to achieve the cancellation of the external public debt in third world countries and subsequently to break the spiral of deeper and deeper indebtedness by setting up models of socially fair and environmentally sustainable development. It describes its supplementary aims as "radically transforming the world's institutional and financial framework"; protection of human rights; strengthening of citizens' movements and activism; and pressuring political leaders to implement human rights guarantees and implementing CADTM and "social movements'" policies. CADTM also aims to support the creation of taxes similar to the

Tobin tax A Tobin tax was originally defined as a tax on all spot conversions of one currency into another. It was suggested by James Tobin, an economist who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Tobin's tax was originally intended to pen ...

, to increase the official aid budget of rich countries to 0.7% of the

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

, to set up a world tax on large incomes, and for global conversion of military expenditure into social and cultural expenditure. It aims to suspend the IMF's and

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

's structural adjustment policies, to radically reform the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...

, and to achieve strict control on financial markets and the suppression of

tax haven A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

s. CADTM claims to support

women's emancipation Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

, peoples' right to self-determination, radical

land reform Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...

s and a general reduction of working hours.

Leadership

, the president of CADTM was historian and political scientist Éric Toussaint.

Publications

CADTM publishes a magazine, essays and a website and organises seminars, lectures, debates, training sessions, international conferences and campaigns. It participates in national and international initiatives and in citizens' mobilisations. It lobbies ministers, members of parliament and other politically active citizens. In September 2018, CADTM's submission to the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...

(OHCHR) was accepted as a contribution to the OHCHR's development of "Guiding Principles" for human rights impact assessments for economic reform policies. In January 2019, ''

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bu ...

'' summarised a CADTM article by Qian Benli that criticised the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative as not benefiting ordinary Chinese and being heavily involved in corruption. In February 2019,

Democracy Now ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

used a report by CADTM on debt in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

to suggest that big holders of Puerto Rican debt, including the investment funds of prestigious US universities, would profit from financing arrangements following

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the worst natural disaster in recorded history to affect ...

References

{{reflist, 2, refs= {{cite news , last1= Parpart , first1= Eric , title= Belt tightening , date= 2018-07-30 , publisher= Bangkok Post , url= https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1512518/belt-tightening , accessdate= 2019-03-05 , archiveurl= https://www.webcitation.org/76dKq25a8?url=https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1512518/belt-tightening , archivedate= 2019-03-05 , url-status= live {{cite web , title = About CADTM , publisher = Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt , date = 2007-11-08 , url = http://www.cadtm.org/About-CADTM , accessdate = 2019-03-05 , archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20190305002727/http://www.cadtm.org/About-CADTM , archivedate= 2019-03-05 , url-status=live {{cite news , title= China's OBOR expectations look gloomy: Expert , date= 2019-01-04 , publisher=

, url= https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/chinas-obor-expectations-look-gloomy-expert/articleshow/67377396.cms , accessdate=2019-03-05 , archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20190106103235/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/chinas-obor-expectations-look-gloomy-expert/articleshow/67377396.cms , archivedate= 2019-01-06 , url-status=live {{cite news , title= Puerto Rico: Vulture Funds to Make a Killing as Judge Approves Deal to Restructure Island's Debt , date= 2019-02-06 , publisher=

, url= https://www.democracynow.org/2019/2/6/puerto_rico_vulture_funds_to_make , accessdate=2019-03-05 , archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20190305010507/https://www.democracynow.org/2019/2/6/puerto_rico_vulture_funds_to_make , archivedate= 2019-03-05 , url-status=live {{cite web , title= Guiding Principles for human rights impact assessments for economic reform policies , date= 2018-09-24 , publisher=

, url= https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Development/IEDebt/Pages/DebtAndimpactassessments.aspx , accessdate=2019-03-05 , archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20190305012405/https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Development/IEDebt/Pages/DebtAndimpactassessments.aspx , archivedate= 2019-03-05 , url-status=live

External links

Official website
Abolition of the Third World Debt Abolition of the Third World Debt