Our new site www.odiousdebts.org is devoted to all the Odious Debts campaigns around the world.

The phrase "odious debts" was first coined by Alexander Sack, a legal scholar on the obligations of successor nations. His theory of the debts of successor nations has come to be known as the "doctrine of odious debts":

If a despotic power incurs a debt not for the needs or in the interest of the State, but to strengthen its despotic regime, to repress the population that fights against it, this debt is odious and due for cancellation for the population of the State.

The book, Odious Debts, ignited a movement to cancel the poorest nation's unpayable debts