A/HRC/14/21 per week and rising every four weeks to a maximum of US$ 80,000 per week, for failing to comply with the order.24 20. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has a GDP of US$ 11.6 billion and a Human Development Index ranking of 176, remains embroiled in a civil war.25 Approximately 79.5 per cent of its nearly 66 million population lives on less than US$ 2 per day. Government expenditure on health is estimated at 7.2 per cent of GDP.26 With a debt burden deemed unsustainable by the World Bank and IMF, the Democratic Republic of the Congo cannot service its external debt obligations without harming its poverty-reduction and economic development prospects. It is currently going through the HIPC process; the court awards mentioned above threaten the country’s potential gains from international debt relief efforts and its capacity to create the conditions for fulfilling its human rights obligations. Zambia27 21. In 1979 Romania lent Zambia US$ 15 million, which the latter used to purchase tractors and other agricultural machinery from the former. It appears that some of this equipment arrived in an unusable condition. This situation was compounded by the fact that European subsidies rendered it difficult for Zambia to compete in the global marketplace. Unable to raise enough revenue from its exports to service the loan, Zambia defaulted. 22. In early 1997 Debt Advisory International (which later incorporated Donegal International to pursue the debt Zambia owed to Romania) started putting forward proposals to acquire the Zambian debt from Romania. In an obvious attempt to persuade Romania to accept its proposal to acquire the debt, Debt Advisory International sent a memorandum to Romania in May in which it stated: We understand that Zambia is currently not servicing its debt to Romania and has not made any serious attempts to reschedule these claims in many years. Furthermore, Zambia is not likely to resume servicing its obligations to Romania in the near term. Zambia’s economic situation remains dire, and the country’s unsustainable external debt burden makes it one of the countries likely to benefit from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative … Under the HIPC initiative, Zambia will receive additional debt reduction from its bilateral creditors … In particular, bilateral creditors may need to write off up to 90 per cent of their Zambian claims and reschedule the remaining 10 per cent over 23 years or more. It is the practice of the Paris Club to require African Governments to agree a minute to the effect that they will not afford any other sovereign creditor better rescheduling terms than they have afforded the Paris Club. Consequently, we believe that there is very little chance that Romania can expect to obtain more in net present value terms that we are presently offering.28 23. In 1998, Romania agreed to sell the debt to Donegal International for US$ 3.2 million subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions by Donegal. The company failed to meet one of these conditions, namely, meeting a deadline of 31 December 1998 for the completion of the assignment. In December 1998, the two countries commenced negotiations to liquidate the debt for US$ 3,281,780 and subsequently signed a 24 25 26 27 28 GE.10-13156 Available from www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KG08Dj02.html. Ibid. UNDP, Human Development Report 2009, p. 145 and World Bank, World Development Indicators. UNDP, Human Development Report 2009, pp. 178 and 201. See Donegal International v. Zambia (see footnote 12). Ibid., para. 75. 9