Jubilee 2000 Petition

At last, the Jubilee 2000 petition has become a record breaker - twice over! Thankyou to everyone who signed and tirelessly collected signatures.

The petition asking the leaders of the richest countries to cancel the unpayable debts of the world's poorest countries is the world's biggest ever with 24,319,181 signatures from 166 countries. It has already gained an entry in the Guinness Book of Records 2001 for the Most International Petition ever.

Petition forms have circulated globally in numerous formats and at least 20 languages. People have signed on paper, on banners, on postcards, on chain links, online. Whole communities have been involved: in the small town of Mallaig on the west coast of Scotland, all but three of the population signed. In Peru, campaigners organised the collection of 1,850,000 signatures in under five months – an operation that was almost military in its structure and discipline.

Armed only with pen, paper and ready answers to the frequently asked questions, the tireless collectors have been to schools, marketplaces, pubs, concert halls, synagogues, football clubs, scout huts, doctor's surgeries, universities and sports grounds to gather signatures. And polling stations: Tearfund's Sign of Hope campaign collected a record-breaking 225,000 signatures in one day during the 1999 European elections. Millions of signatures from the World March of Women, which made debt cancellation one of its central demands for eradicating poverty and violence against women, boosted the final count and helped to reach that record-breaking total.

Creditors have had to take notice of this worldwide record of public opinion. 1.5 million signatures were handed over at the Birmingham G8 summit, leaping sharply to 17 million in Cologne the following year. The final world record-breaking handover was to Kofi Annan at the UN Millennium summit in New York and to the IMF and World Bank at their meetings in Prague in September 2000. Now wherever debt campaigners take action, they have the force of over 24 million people behind them.

The text of the Jubilee 2000 petition is:

We, the undersigned, believe that the start of the new millennium should be a time to give hope to the impoverished people of the world.

To make a fresh start, we believe it right to put behind us the mistakes made by both lenders and borrowers, and to cancel the backlog of unpayable debts of the most impoverished nations.

We call upon the leaders of lending nations to meet in Africa this year and agree to write off these debts by the year 2000. We ask them to take effective steps to prevent such high levels of debt building up again. We look for a new beginning to celebrate the millennium.

Click here to see the original petition page on the Jubilee 2000 website (now for information only)

The signature counts from 166 countries around the world are:

Austria 63,364

Argentina 9,128

Australia 457,620

Algeria 97

Antigua 30

Armenia 31

Anguilla 1

Angola 5,874

Armenia 108

Bangladesh 2,175,895

Bahamas 1

Bermuda 1

Barbados 848

Bosnia 90

Bulgaria 1

Brazil 810,173

Belgium 350,025

Benin 550

Bolivia 404,095

Botswana 130

Burundi 50

Balarus 30

Burkino Faso 153

Cyprus 20

Costa Rica 965

China 101

Cuba 800

Croatia 549

Cambodia 191

Cent.African Rep. 48

Canada 645,402

Chad 151

Congo(DR) 81,815

Chile 6,640

Cote d'Ivoire 1,129

Czech Rep. 6,341

Colombia 20,982

Cameroon 52,209

Denmark 54,656

Djibouti 10

Dominica 30

Dominican Rep. 2,599

Ethiopia 650

Egypt 2,650

Ecuador 14,323

El Salvador 5,086

Estonia 26

Equitorial Guinea 10

Eritrea 38

France 521,319

Falkland Is. 40

Finland 90,403

Fiji 105

Fr. Polynesia 1,030

Gibraltar 465

Gambia 1,195

Gabon 3

Germany 1,200,381

Ghana 3,795

Guernsey 145

Guyana 5,765

Guatemala 1,400

Grand Cayman Is. 40

Guinea 1

Greece 966

Hong Kong 6,903

Haiti 100,052

Hungary 24

Honduras 55,100

Italy 471,837

India 854,219

Ireland 870,921

Indonesia 985

Iceland 432

Israel 160

Iran 10

Isle of Man 60

Japan 508,855

Jersey 780

Jordan 1

Jamaica 170

Kenya 6,480

Korea (South) 140,086

Kazakhstan 2

Kiribati 70

Luxembourg 13,621

Libya 3

Lithuania 2

Liberia 150

Lesotho 30

Lebanon 470

Laos 20

Morocco 40

Malaysia 414

Mozambique 7,600

Micronesia 3,800

Monaco 30

Macedonia 25

Moldovo 2

Malta 3,574

Malawi 20,846

Mexico 247,106

Mali 715

Madagascar 360

Mauritania 10

Myanmar 32

Mauritius 100

Netherlands 335,127

Netherlands Antilles 110

Norway 89,684

New Zealand 63,847

Nigeria 805,723

Niger 1,005 Nepal 141

Nicaragua 16,060

Namibia 7,040

Pakistan 63,399

Panama 12

Portugal 103,389

Philippines 29,817

Peru 1,850,060

Puerto Rico 325

Papua New Guinea 400

Poland 253,292

Paraguay 910

Palestine 50

Russia 21

Rwanda 1,420

Romania 50

Reunion 12

Sri Lanka 315,618

Syria 1

Seychelles 30

Sudan 20

St. Vincent 10

Swaziland 1

Slovenia 130

Surinam 737

Sweden 220,584

Spain 1,021,228

Switzerland 1,334

South Africa 100,123

Singapore 96

Sierra Leone 565

Slovakia 3,869

Solomon Islands 121

Senegal 780

Taiwan 2,433

Thailand 310

Tanzania 17,650

Turkey 80

Togo 1,122

Trinidad 6,465

Tunisia 40

UK 2,961,768

USA 5,328,856

Uganda 65,591

Ukraine 81

United Arab Emirates 10

Uruguay 14,185

Venezuela 4,452

Viet Nam 178

Vatican State 160

Vanuatu 100

Zimbabwe 3,181

Zambia 306,512