The global ecumenical Jubilee movement, which began in the UK, has lead an impressive campaign to cancel the unpayable debt of the world's poorest countries. As part of this campaign, Jubilee 2000 UK (now Jubilee +) has released numerous important publications relating to the doctrine of odious debts. Joseph Hanlon’s report Dictators and Debt offers a detailed explanation of the history of the debt crisis and describes how lending practices of northern countries helped support corrupt dictatorships in the south. Hanlon argues that a large portion of loans to southern countries was used for repressive and corrupt purposes. As a result, the report concludes that these debts are “odious” under international law and thus the citizenry of the South cannot legally be required to pay them back.

Recently, Britain ratified the OECD Convention on Corruption and Bribery , which requires signatories to enact domestic legislation criminalizing the bribery of a foreign official. The Convention has been praised as an important step in combating the type of corruption that is often linked to odious debts. However, in an article for the Guardian newspaper, Jonathan Steele argues that many British companies who contributed to Third World corruption have not been held accountable in the UK.