The Commonwealth after Colombo: Can it Become Meaningful Again?

Abstract

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Colombo in 2013 was attended by fewer than half the number of Heads of Government. The “retreat” – created as a private meeting of Heads with only the Secretary-General present – was even less well attended by Heads, some of whom left the Meeting early. In part, this situation was due to the controversy that surrounded the hosting of the Meeting by the Sri Lankan government over its human rights record, but that is not the full explanation. In recent years, a North-South divide has crept into way that governments perceive the Commonwealth and its purposes. CHOGM itself has become devalued and has lost the special character that made it appealing to Heads. In arguing that the Commonwealth is in dire crisis, an initiative is proposed for the Commonwealth to be rescued at the 2015 CHOGM in Malta. A strong argument is made for a preparatory process involving Heads of Government representing Commonwealth regions and under the guidance of the Maltese Prime Minister to be launched immediately.

Keywords:

• North-South divide
• democracy at expense of development
• devalued Heads of Government Conference
• poor attendance at “retreat”
• initiative to rescue the Commonwealth
• Maltese Prime Minister
• preparatory process involving regional heads
• search committee
• new Secretary-General
• call for resignation of Secretary-General

Notes

1. Stuart Mole (2013) ‘The Lost Summit, Colombo Notebook’, 23 November, posted on the website of The Round Table, http://www.moot.org.uk/pdf/Colombo%20notebook-3.pdf, accessed 1 December 2013.

2. ‘Mauritius pulls out of hosting 2015 CHOGM: PM’, Business Standard, AFP/PTI, London, 16 November, 2013, ://www.business-standard.com/article/international/mauritius-pulls-out-of-hosting-2015-chogm-pm-113111600061_1.html, accessed 7 December 2013.

3. The 1971 and 1979 Singapore and Lusaka CHOGM where Southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe was a contentious issue, and the 1985 Nassau Summit where apartheid South Africa dominated.

4. See, for instance, The Missing Link: A Commonwealth Commission for Human Rights, Report of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi, 2013; and Asian Human Rights Commission (n.d.) Sri Lanka: Foreign Ministers Urged to Make Commonwealth Meeting in Sri Lanka Conditional on Significant Progress Concerning Human Rights, http://www.humanrights.asia/news/alrc-news/ALRC-OLT-002-2011,. -2011, accessed 27 September 2013.

5. Aofie O’Donoghue (2013) The Commonwealth and Sri Lanka: Perils of Joining Global Clubs, in EU & International, 2 December, http://humanrights.ie/international-lawinternational-human-rights/the-commonwealth-and-sri-lanka-perils-of-joining-global-clubs/, accessed 3 December 2013.

6. ‘China seeks to cultivate Sri Lanka ties but without international reproach’, South China Morning Post, 2 December 2013, http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1370459/china-seeks-cultivate-sri-lanka-ties-without-international-reproach, accessed 2 December 2013.

7. ‘The UK’s relationship with the Commonwealth’, Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary William Hague, Statement in Parliament, 9 December 2010, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-uks-relationship-with-the-commonwealth, accessed 7 December 2013; ‘The Commonwealth has never been stronger’, Hugo Swire, Minister for Commonwealth Affairs in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, The Telegraph, London, 2 January 2013, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/9775008/The-Commonwealth-has-never-been-stronger.html, accessed 7 December 2013.

8. Statement by the prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, issued on 7 October 2013 by the PMO Press Office, Ottawa, http://pm.gc.ca/, accessed 8 October 2013.

9. See A Commonwealth of the People: Time for Urgent Reform: The Report of the Eminent Persons Group to Commonwealth Heads of Government, Perth, October 2011. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.

10. Ibid. See pp. 40–42 for discussion of the recommendation.

11. Ibid. The argument to abolish the position of Chair-in-Office and the Troika can be seen from p. 117 to p. 120.

12. The full text of the opinion of the late P. N. Langa, former Chief Justice of South Africa, can be read at: https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/expose-full-text-of-sharmas-buried-report-impeachment-violated-cwealth-principles-sowed-seeds-of-anarchy/, accessed 4 December 2013.

13. Letter dated 19 September 2013 from the Secretary-General to the Canadian Foreign Minister.

14. Full text of Rajapaksa’s speech: http://wireceylon.com/wire/opinion/2013/09/25/full-text-of-speech-by-president-mahinda-rajapaksa-at-the-68th-session-of-the-un-general-assembly-2013.html, accessed 3 December 2013.

15. Op. cit., note 8.

16. ‘Former Maldivian president calls to withdraw from Commonwealth’, Xinhua News Agency, 15 November 2013, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-11/15/c_132892090.htm, accessed 3 December 2013.

17. Mariyath Mohamed (2013) ‘Maldives likely to leave Commonwealth if not taken off CMAG agenda: Dunya’, Minivian News, 6 September, http://minivannews.com/politics/maldives-likely-to-leave-commonwealth-if-not-taken-off-cmag-agenda-dunya-43484, accessed 3 December 2013.

18. Trevor Grundy report on 8 October 2013 of an interview with Nana Grey-Johnson, Gambian Minister of Information and Communication Infrastructure, with the Zambia-based monthly magazine The Bulletin and Record (shared by email with the Commonwealth Journalists Association).

19. See Human Rights and Democracy; The 2012 Foreign and Commonwealth Office Report, http://www.hrdreport.fco.gov.uk/introduction-2/, accessed 30 September 2013.

20. Joel Atkinson (2013) ‘Gambia’s break with Taiwan’, The Diplomat, 2 December, http://thediplomat.com/2013/12/gambias-break-with-taiwan/, accessed 3 December 2013.

21. The exceptions to this are Mozambique, Cameroon and Rwanda, whose membership of the Commonwealth is not based on traditional criteria.

22. ‘Remarks by President Obama in Address to the United Nations General Assembly’, 24 September 2013, posted on the website of the White House, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/09/24/remarks-president-obama-address-united-nations-general-assembly, accessed 7 December 2013.

23. (1990) The Challenge to the South: The Report of the South Commission. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 287.

24. For a deeper discussion of this matter, see Sir Ronald Sanders, (2013) ‘The Commonwealth and China: Upholding values, Containing the dragon?’, The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, 102(3), 223–234.

25. Op. cit., note 9, p. 13.

26. Dennis Austin (1998) The Commonwealth and Britain. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, p. 11.

27. Stephen Chan (1988) The Commonwealth in World Politics: A Study of International Action 1965 to 1985. London: Lester Crook Academic Publishing, p. 72; and James Mayall, Emeritus Fellow in International Relations at Sidney Sussex College at the University of Cambridge, quoted in Jen Gerson (2013) ‘How exactly does the Commonwealth work anyway?’, The National Post, Canada, 7 October, http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/07/how-exactly-does-the-commonwealth-work-anyway/, accessed 8 October 2013.

28. Op. cit., note 9, p. 29.

29. Selecting the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Stuart Mole and Daisy Cooper, Policy Briefing: Issues before Commonwealth leaders at Perth, Australia, October 2011, pp 29–34. Published for the CA/B by Nexus Strategic Partnerships, 2011.