A/HRC/20/23 responsibility for ensuring all human rights to all people living in their territory and under their jurisdiction. Thus, States should not be placed in a situation where they are unable to fulfil this obligation due to excessive debt service obligations. 8. The guiding principles on foreign debt and human rights, which are presented with this report, represent an attempt to contribute to the quest for an equitable and durable solution to the debt crisis that is not only in line with the political commitments made by the international community but is also consistent with the human rights obligations of all States. II. Background to the principles 9. In resolution 2004/18, the Commission on Human Rights 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 would not undermine the obligations for the realization of fundamental economic, social and cultural rights, as provided for in the international human rights instruments, and to present a preliminary draft on the matter to the Commission at its sixty-first session and a final draft at the sixtysecond session of the Commission. 10. In its decision 2/109, the Human Rights Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to convene an expert consultation for the purpose of contributing to the process of drafting the general Guidelines. Following that consultation, the Independent Expert (renamed independent expert on the effects of economic reform policies and foreign debt on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights) presented a preliminary draft of the guidelines to the Council at its March 2008 session. In his report to the Council (A/HRC/7/9), the Independent Expert noted that the guidelines required further consultation and work. 11. In its resolutions 7/4 and 11/5, the Council requested the Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, to the following concluding observations, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: E/C.12/1/Add.106 (Zambia); E/C.12/1/Add.78 (Benin); E/C.12/1/Add.71 (Algeria); E/C.12/1/Add.66 (Nepal); E/C.12/1/Add.63 (Syrian Arab Republic); E/C.12/1/Add.62 (Senegal); E/C.12/1/Add.60 (Bolivia, Plurinational State of); E/C.12/1/Add.57 (Honduras); E/C.12/1/Add.55 (Morocco); E/C.12/1/Add.49 (Kyrgyzstan); and E/C.12/1/Add.48 (Sudan); Committee on the Rights of the Child: CRC/C/15/Add.218 (Madagascar); CRC/C/15/Add.204 (Eritrea); CRC/C/15Add.207 (Sri Lanka); CRC/C/15/Add.197 (Republic of Korea); CRC/C/15/Add.193 (Burkina Faso); CRC/C/15/Add.190 (Sudan); CRC/C/15/Add.186 (Netherlands/Netherlands Antilles); CRC/C/15/Add.179 (Niger); CRC/C/15/Add.174 (Malawi); CRC/C/15/Add.172 (Mozambique); CRC/C/15/Add.160 (Kenya); CRC/C/15/Add.152 (Turkey); CRC/C/15/Add.138 (Central African Republic); CRC/C/15/Add.130 (Suriname); CRC/C/15/Add.124 (Georgia); and CRC/C/15/Add.115 (India); Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Official Records of the General Assembly, Fiftyseventh Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/57/38), paras. 149 (Uganda) and 155 (Trinidad and Tobago); ibid, Fifty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/56/38), part one, para. 227 (Jamaica) and part two, paras. 161 (Guyana) and 227 (Netherlands); ibid, Fifty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/55/38), para. 44 (Cameroon). 6