A/HRC/14/21 the debt rescheduling agreements Liberia had reached with its Paris Club creditors did not affect the obligations of the State to the private companies.18 17. Liberia, an HIPC with a GDP of US$ 870 million, ranks 169th out of 182 countries in the Human Development Index.19 Over 94 per cent of the country’s population of more than 4 million lives on less than US$ 2 per day, while the unemployment rate is as high as 85 per cent. Life expectancy is less than 50 years and only slightly more than a third of the population is literate. The estimated adult HIV prevalence rate is 1.7 per cent.20 The country is attempting to recover from the effects of a devastating civil war that include badly damaged infrastructure as well as limited or no access to safe water and sanitation or electricity for the majority of the population. The judgement debt of US$ 20 million payable by Liberia is equivalent to about 5 per cent of the budget of the Government of Liberia this year, the country’s entire education budget and 150 per cent of its health budget in 2008.21 Plainly, Liberia cannot service its debt without jeopardizing its poverty-reduction and economic development prospects, let alone pay an amount that the British High Court accepted was “a substantial sum”. Democratic Republic of the Congo 18. In 1980 and 1986 the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) and its national electricity company (Société Nationale d’Électricité) entered into credit agreements with Energoinvest, a Yugoslav company, to provide electrical infrastructure. The Government guaranteed the amount but by the late 1980s both the electricity company and the Government had defaulted on the debts. In 2003, the International Chamber of Commerce made two arbitral awards in favour of Energoinvest for US$ 18.43 million and US$ 11.725 million plus 9 per cent interest and the cost of arbitration. In 2004 the United States District Court for the District of Columbia confirmed the US$ 11.725 million arbitral award and in 2005 confirmed the US$ 18.43 million arbitral award. 19. Energoinvest then sold its interests in the arbitral awards and judgements to a company called FG Hemisphere (now FG Capital Management) which specializes in uncovering, investigating and managing alternative investment opportunities and special situations within the emerging markets.22 Subsequently, FG Hemisphere attempted to seize assets of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the Bahamas, Europe, South Africa, the United States and in Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China. In 2005, the company obtained a court order compelling the State to furnish detailed information about all its assets throughout the world. The State failed to comply with the order, arguing that it imposed a virtually impossible burden. In May 2008, FG Hemisphere filed a motion in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to hold the Democratic Republic of the Congo in contempt.23 In March 2009, the court fined the State the sum of US$ 5,000 18 19 20 21 22 23 8 Ibid. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report 2009 (New York, 2009), p. 145; World Bank, World Development Indicators (October 2009), available from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic (2008), p. 215. Jubilee USA Network, “UK judge awards funds $20 million, more than Liberia’s total spending on education last year”. Available from www.jubileeusa.org/press/press-item/article/advocacy-groupsdecry-profiteering-by-vulture-funds-inliberia.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=170&cHash=924f4678be. H. Stewart and A. Seager, “Vulture fund swoops on Congo over $100m debt”, Observer, 9 August 2009. Available from www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/09/congo. See M. Stulman, “Indebted nations fight off vulture funds”, Asia Times Online, 8 July 2009. GE.10-13156