The World Assembly,
Believing that the Assembly has a vested interest in protecting the liberty of those individuals who did nothing wrong but fall hopelessly into debt,
Observing that debtors' prisons, debt bondage, and associated punishments are generally punitive against honest but unlucky debtors, serving little more than detaining and punishing the poor,
Seeing that some persons in member nations are incarcerated merely for failing to repay debt obligations undertaken, and believing that this:
- both reduces the ability for that person to earn income to repay such obligations and does little to induce repayment,
- creates significant disincentives for entrepreneurs to take risks and invest in new business opportunities, and
- leads to borrowers moving away from formal borrowing institutions, which can be subject to the protections of the formal legal system, and into the pockets of loansharks to escape the possibility of imprisonment, and
Concerned about policies which disproportionately impact the poor simply because they are poor, hereby, subject to past and future World Assembly resolutions:
- Defines 'debt' as a non-contingent private obligation to render a sum or sums of money to another person under contract; defines a person with debt as a 'borrower';
- Prohibits member nations from criminalising, or taking into consideration for purposes of sentencing, the state of being a borrower; forbids member nations from imposing any punishment against borrowers or classes of borrowers by enacting legislation or mass judgement via bill of attainder or similar instruments; frees immediately all persons currently incarcerated and expunges the sentences of all persons currently serving punishment for such reason;
- Prohibits the holding of any person to labour for the repayment, origination, or discharge of any debt; frees immediately all persons so held; further prohibits member nations from allowing the inheritance of debts incurred after the passage of this resolution, unless (a) those debts are explicitly incurred with such a provision and (b) such a provision is not prohibited under national or international law;
- Provides to any person, natural or juridicial, an effective remedy against creditors wherein they can discharge or renegotiate all debts incurred, contingent on the liquidation of their assets or development of a credible and suitable plan of payment to those creditors; requires member nation courts to waive court fees from non-vexatious litigants who would suffer undue hardship from being required to pay them;
- Bars member nations from invoking a person's debts, financial obligations arising from previous state of captivity, fines, or fees as reason to deprive that person of the right to vote in any election, referendum, or plebiscite in which they would otherwise be eligible;
- Clarifies that this resolution does not prohibit member nation court systems from, with a court order, garnishing wages for repayment of debts or imprisoning persons for contempt of a court order, so long as such judgements are only for coercive and non-punitive purposes; and further clarifies that, for the purposes of this resolution, tax liabilities are not included in any definition of debt or financial obligation.
