UN General Assembly
1993

Additionally, a definite solution must be found, during the current decade, to the third world’s crushing external debt problem. In Latin America and the Caribbean, with 181 million out of 441 million people living below the poverty line, in the mire of destitution, how can human development take place when, despite onerous debt payments, the stock of debt continues to grow? A prospective Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) study for the region over the 1985-1995 period shows a serious aggravation in terms of poverty, unemployment and foreign debt during the decade. Between 1981 and 1990, the region’s foreign debt payments were $503 billion, of which $313 billion were interest payments. However, in the same period, the region’s consolidated foreign debt increased from $297 billion in 1981 to $428 billion in 1991. Little wonder that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) publication entitled "Children of the Americas" commented that this mechanism, whereby the more you pay the more you owe, is perverse and must be stopped. Debt relief in the form of debt cancellation, grants, soft