POVERTY HAS STILL NOT BEEN MADE HISTORY

Press Release 2-12-2006

Conference in Dublin this Saturday Afternoon to Hear

VISITING INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS

highlight that

'POVERTY HAS STILL NOT BEEN MADE HISTORY'

Visiting activists from the global debt cancellation and trade justice movements will this weekend highlight that, despite the focus of world leaders in 2005 on issues of global poverty, little progress has been made in the struggle for greater economic justice between rich and poor countries.

Filipino debt cancellation activist, Ms Lidy Nacpil and Ghanaian trade justice activist, Mr Gyekye Tanoh will speak on Saturday November 4th at Wynn's Hotel, Abbey St, Dublin 1, from 2-5pm at a conference entitled 'Illegitimate Power in International Relations: Where to Next for Debt Cancellation and Trade Justice?'

The purpose of the conference will be to highlight the continuing relationships of exploitation between rich and poor countries.

Ms Nessa Ní Chasaide, Co-ordinator of the Debt and Development Coalition Ireland, commented: “While the Irish government has made important progress regarding meeting our overseas aid spending obligations, it is still failing to insist on expanded debt cancellation and trade justice for poor countries. This conference will highlight that when it comes to resource flows between rich and poor countries, it is a case of giving with one hand, such as through aid payments, and taking with the other, through debt repayments and unfair trade rules.”

For further information please contact:

Paul O' Mahony: Comhlamh: 478 3490; 087 965 3877

Nessa Ní Chasaide: Debt and Development Coalition Ireland: 8571828; 087 7507001

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Notes to Editors:

Lidy Nacpil (Philippines) is International Coordinator of Jubilee South, a network of anti-debt coalitions in more than 60 countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. She currently serves as vice president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) in the Philippines, the oldest organization working for debt cancellation since 1988. FDC supports a Citizens audit of loans given to the government to determine whether they are illegitimate.

Lidy started her activist career campaigning against the Marcos dictatorship. Her first husband was killed by the military in 1987, leaving Lidy alone with her young daughter. In 1993, she began her anti-debt and economic justice work and is now considered one of the leading experts on the subject. Much of the Philippines' debt accrued during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. A particularly harmful example is that of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, which has never produced any power for the people of the Philippines, yet the government is still repaying over $2 billion in loans for the project.

Gyekye Tanoh works for Third World Network (TWN) Africa, conducting research and advocacy in globalisation, trade and development. He is a regular contributor to African Trade Agenda, and a number of other publications on a wide-range of subjects considering impacts of and responses to globalisation issues in Africa. He is also deputy National Coordinator of the Ghana Coalition Against Privatisation.