United Nations
General Assembly
A/RES/59/223
Distr.: General
14 February 2005
Fifty-ninth session
Agenda item 83 (c)
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 22 December 2004
[on the report of the Second Committee (A/59/481/Add.3)]
59/223. External debt crisis and development
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolution 58/203 of 23 December 2003 on the external debt
crisis and development,
Reaffirming the Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on
Financing for Development, 1 which recognizes sustainable debt financing as an
important element for mobilizing resources for public and private investment,
Recalling the United Nations Millennium Declaration adopted on 8 September
2000, 2 which reaffirms the need to deal comprehensively and effectively with the
debt problems of low- and middle-income developing countries,
Recalling also its resolution 57/270 B of 23 June 2003,
Concerned that a number of developing countries have not sufficiently
benefited from the current global economic recovery in their efforts to attain the
internationally agreed development goals, in particular the heavily indebted poor
countries, where continuing debt and debt-servicing obligations could adversely
affect their sustainable development,
Welcoming the further extension of the sunset clause of the Heavily Indebted
Poor Countries Initiative, noting that the Initiative aims to promote debt
sustainability in the poorest countries and that its implementation could be enhanced
by streamlining conditionalities, emphasizing in this regard the need to ensure that
debt relief does not replace other sources of financing, acknowledging furthermore
the progress in the implementation of the Initiative, 3 and welcoming the call in the
communiqué issued by the joint International Monetary Fund/World Bank
Development Committee on 2 October 2004 4 urging all creditors to participate in
the Initiative,
_______________
1
Report of the International Conference on Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico,
18–22 March 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.02.II.A.7), chap. I, resolution 1, annex.
2
See resolution 55/2.
3
Fifteen countries have passed the completion point and twenty-seven countries have redirected substantial
funds from debt-servicing to social expenditures.
4
See IMF Survey, vol. 33, No. 18 (11 October 2004). Also available from www.imf.org/imfsurvey.
04-48964