Noel Villaroman, University of Notre Dame Law School Alumnus
“Foreign Debt Repayments and their Impact on Human Development in Developing Countries: ‘A Fate Worse than Debt’”
Bio: Noel G. Villaroman obtained a bachelor of laws (LLB) degree from the University of the Philippines. In 2006, he finished a master’s degree (LLM, magna cum laude) in international human rights law at the University of Notre Dame. His research interests are in the areas of development and human rights law. He is currently a Higher Degree by Research (HDR) scholar at Monash University Law School in Australia.
Abstract: This research builds from the premise that, if the amounts allocated to debt repayments will be freed up, public spending on social services will significantly increase. It explores the “right to development” as a legal justification for the cancellation or reduction of foreign debts owed by developing countries. Development has been exalted as the most important human right by its proponents, but some burning questions remain: What is the precise content of the right to development and against whom can it be claimed? Is the right applicable in the specific context of creditor-debtor relation between countries? Where can it be invoked to end human indignities taking place because of massive debt repayments?
This work will have two main arguments: First, debt servicing in so far as it incapacitates governments of developing countries to provide social services to their population violates the right to development understood as an individual human right guaranteed to ‘every person’. Second, the conditions or requirements presently being imposed by the developed world before poor countries can be relieved of their debt burden violate their right to development understood as a collective human right guaranteed to ‘all peoples’. In this author’s opinion, the foreign debt problem of poor countries and its impact on human development deserve an in-depth treatment by scholars. This study is a modest contribution to that goal of understanding the broader interrelationship among development, public policy and human rights.
