Key UN Finance Forum Could Lead to UN Framework on Sovereign Debt; Mobilization Calls For Action

29 April 2025, New York, NY — “We want a UN Framework Convention on Sovereign Debt!”, debt and climate justice activists from the US, Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe stressed in a public action today in front of the United Nations in New York. 

The action was Led by Debt for Climate, Asian Peoples’ Movement for Debt and Development, and the Glasgow Actions Team and supported by the CS FFD Mechanism and network partners.

Activists drummed up a key civil society ask from the upcoming 4th International FfD Conference, for a statutory debt framework hosted by a multilateral space, notably the UN’s, which gives the majority of Global South countries a voice and a say in decision-making in addressing public debt issues and preventing future crises.

Also members of the Civil Society FfD Mechanism, they underscored the situation of more than three billion people living in countries that spend more on interest payments on sovereign  debts  than on education or health. However, existing forums have approached the problem according to the perspectives and interests of lenders. Debt relief initiatives have been very inadequate, while unsustainable and illegitimate debts continue to weigh heavily on  Global South countries. 

A UN Debt Convention can potentially set binding principles on responsible borrowing and lending, establish mechanisms for Debt Transparency and discuss ways of addressing the need for substantial debt reduction, including debt cancellation of unsustainable and illegitimate debts.

At this year’s UN Forum on Financing for Development, Member States are negotiating the outcome document for the Fourth Financing for Development Conference (FFD4), set to take place in Spain in July 2025. The outcome of these talks could shape the international financial system for decades to come—and determine whether or not sovereign nations will finally have access to a fair, democratic debt resolution process under the UN, outside of the US-dominated World Bank/International Monetary Fund framework and the failed Common Framework. 

The action was Led by Debt for Climate, Asian Peoples’ Movement for Debt and Development, and the Glasgow Actions Team and supported by the CS FFD Mechanism and network partners.

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