A/HRC/20/23 initiatives have provided some fiscal space for heavily indebted poor countries to implement some social programmes. However, these initiatives are fraught with problems, including lengthy policy conditionality requirements (which not only undermine the poverty reduction goals of debt relief but also undermine country ownership of national development strategies) and exclusion of many countries that need or deserve debt relief. Further, they do not appear to have provided a durable solution to the debt problem as shown by international financial institution assessments indicating that some of the countries that have completed the debt relief processes are at risk of debt distress. These challenges require a response that strikes an appropriate balance between the obligations of States arising from their external debt arrangements and under international human rights law. This balance cannot be achieved through unilateral actions alone and domestic policy orientations on the part of individual States but requires concerted international action in the spirit of international cooperation and assistance as underscored in the Charter of the United Nations and other instruments. Consequently, a number of high-level summits of world leaders have called for the formulation of a comprehensive solution to the external debt problem, particularly of developing countries. In this regard, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (1993) “calls upon the international community to make all efforts to help alleviate the external debt burden of developing countries, in order to supplement the efforts of the Governments of such countries to attain the full realization of the economic, social and cultural rights of their people.”2 Similarly, the Millennium Declaration (2000) from which the Millennium Development Goals are drawn, acknowledges the need for reform of the international financial system to make it open, rules-based, predictable and non-discriminatory.3 This goal specifies the need to “deal comprehensively and effectively with the debt problems of […] developing countries” through […] national and international measures designed to make debt sustainable in the long term. Lastly, the Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development (2002) underscores the mutual accountability of creditors and debtors for their decisions relating to external debt and it advocates exploration of “innovative mechanisms to comprehensively address debt problems of developing countries” as well as “consideration by all relevant stakeholders of an international debt workout mechanism, in the appropriate forums, that will engage debtors and creditors to […] restructure unsustainable debts in a timely and efficient manner.”4 In response to the foregoing challenges, on 16 April 2004, the Commission on Human Rights adopted resolution 2004/18 in which it requested the independent expert on the effects of structural adjustment policies and foreign debt on the full enjoyment of human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights “to draft general guidelines to be followed by States and by private and public, national and international financial institutions in the decision-making and execution of debt repayments and structural reform programmes, including those arising from foreign debt relief, to ensure that compliance with the commitments derived from foreign debt will not undermine the obligations for the realization of fundamental economic, social and cultural rights, as provided for in the international human rights instruments.” In subsequent resolutions and decisions, the Commission and the Human Rights Council requested the independent expert to seek the views and suggestions of a broad range of stakeholders, including States, international 2 3 4 10 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights on 25 June 1993, A/CONF.157/23 (1993), part I, para. 12. United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES/55/2 (2000), paras. 11-16. Report of the International Conference on Financing for Development: Monterrey, Mexico, 18-22 March 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.02.II.A.7), chap. I, resolution 1, annex, paras. 47, 51 and 60.