The States and International Organizations, Parties to the present Agreement
Recalling the declaration of the African Finance Ministers of 2 June 2003 on Aid,
Trade, Debt, IMF, HIV/AIDs in which they called for the rapid establishment of a legal
technical assistance Facility to help Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (“HIPCs”) in
Africa address the problems of creditor litigation;
Mindful of the fact that these lawsuits threaten the core objectives of the HIPC initiative
by effectively reducing the impact of the debt relief for the HIPCs and causing inequitable
burden sharing among creditors;
Recalling that, in this regard, the Commission for Africa called for the establishment
of a rapid response of a legal technical assistance Facility, independent of the Bretton
Woods Institutions, to assist African countries pre-empt, avoid or successfully prosecute
such lawsuits;
Recalling the resolution of the African Ministerial Conference of February 2007, jointly
organized by the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission
for Africa, on the management of Africa’s natural resources for growth and poverty
reduction, which acknowledged the skills disparity between African and industrialized
countries in negotiating contracts for extractive natural resources, and called specifically
for the creation of a facility to assist African countries develop expertise and capacity
to negotiate and conclude fair and equitable arrangements for the management of Africa’s
natural resources and extractive industries;
Recognising that African countries lack expertise and capacity in creditor litigation
and in negotiations of complex commercial transactions, and that their ability to
acquire such expertise and capacity is constrained by financial and institutional
limitations;
Convinced that beneficial commercial relationships and proper balance of rights and
obligations in complex commercial transactions, investment agreements, natural resource
contracts and creditor litigations can only be maintained if the parties thereto have
full knowledge of their respective rights and obligations as well as equal opportunity
and access to competent legal services;
Noting the commendable efforts of the African Development Bank in promoting the establishment
of an African legal support facility;
