This paper considers the notion of debt relief for developing countries within a wider context of global redistributive justice, global public goods and human rights. It argues that the limitations of the contemporary debt regime stem from its underlying conceptual approach to debt relief, viewing sovereign indebtedness as a problem of bad governance and poor fiscal management and not one that is symptomatic of the wider structural deficiencies of the global economic system. The paper argues that debt relief and mechanisms for achieving them must be located within a wider systemic reform of the international financial architecture and that this, in turn, must be located within a human rights-based framework. The systemic issues of the international financial architecture and the asymmetrical regulatory norms of international finance contribute to the problem of sovereign indebtedness.