DOCTRINE OF ODIOUS DEBT

Odious debt is also known as an illegitimate debt when a country’s government misappropriated the money that it has borrowed from another country. The debts are contracted and are spent against the interests of the population of that country, without its consent and the lending country being fully aware about the fact. The debts are odious when the government leaders use these borrowed funds in ways that do not benefit the citizens of the country, instead used to often oppress them. 

Many believe that, the successor governments shall not be responsible or liable to pay off the odious debts, but the international law holds the government responsible for the debts of the regimes that preceded the current one. Odious debt has previously occurred in the previous regimes in South Africa, Congo, Haiti, Niger, Croatia, etc. where the government used the money to fill their own pockets or to inflict violence on its own citizens. 

For example: The apartheid government of South Africa spent a huge amount to repress the African majority in the country. The debt was considered odious, but the Nelson Mandela government ended up paying those debts.