A/HRC/20/23 Alignment to national development goals 81. Loans and foreign investment agreements must be consistent with country-designed development strategies. Investment agreements 82. International investment agreements, while ensuring the promotion and protection of investments, should comply with all human rights in the territories of the contracting States. 83. To the extent that international investment agreements contemplate sovereign debt as a type of investment such agreements should be consistent with and interpreted in a manner that is consistent with these principles. D. Resolution of debt-related issues 84. Debt repayment problems and debt-related disputes must be resolved by an independent mechanism. In this regard, States and all relevant actors including international financial institutions, bilateral or multilateral lenders and private financial institutions should consider the establishment of an international debt workout mechanism to restructure unsustainable debts and resolve debt disputes in a fair, transparent, efficient and timely manner. 85. The main aim of such a mechanism is to ensure that debtor States can achieve economic viability and growth, and restore their capacity to service their external debts without compromising the fulfilment of their international human rights obligations. 86. The establishment and operation of such a mechanism should be guided by the foundational principles set out in Section II, as well as the following specific considerations: (a) The international debt restructuring mechanism should be independent of creditors and debtors; (b) The assessment of the debtor State’s economic or financial situation should be made by a neutral body; (c) The mechanism should ensure that a debtor State, during and after the restructuring process, should be able to fulfil its international human rights obligations, implement its development programme and provide basic services to all persons living in its territory and under its jurisdiction; (d) The mechanism should have the mandate to rule on the alleged “odiousness” or “illegitimacy” of particular external debts. The criteria to be used to ascertain the odiousness or illegitimacy of a particular external debt should be defined by national legislation taking into account the following elements: 20 (i) The absence of consent by the debtor State’s population; (ii) The absence of benefit to the debtor State’s population; and (iii) The creditor’s awareness of the above facts.