Yes to the Charter, further study for the Commissioner

From Stuart Mole, Our Man in Perth

29 October 2011

The non-publication of the EPG report rumbled on through the day. “An outrage,” declared former Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser. “Disgraceful,” was the verdict of EPG member (and former British Foreign Secretary), Sir Malcolm Rifkind. So incensed were the EPG that, led by their Chairman, Tun Abdullah Badawi, they took off to the Media Centre this morning and released the report themselves.

 

Further, the treatment of the EPG’s presentation both by Heads (and, worse, Foreign Ministers) clearly rankled. There was a mounting concern that their proposals would not be taken seriously and a desire to exert maximum pressure on Heads before their private discussions of the EPG report, in the Retreat, later that day. The rhetoric was strong, and The Australian reported Canadian EPG member, Hugh Segal as saying: “clearly there are slime people for whom silence is the best option. 

In the Senator’s defence, my notes had him saying “some people..”

 

The EPG’s tactics – and their own lunch with Heads after the press conference – seemed to have had the required effect. At the end of the day’s discussions, Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard, told journalists that leaders had accepted the report’s recommendation for a Commonwealth Charter. The proposal for a Commissioner for Democracy, Human Rights and the Rule of Law had not been rejected but had been referred to the Chairman of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) and Secretary-General Sharma for further, presumably urgent, study.

 

As significantly, Heads tasked their Foreign Ministers with trawling through the report’s remaining 104 recommendations overnight. These would be prioritised, grouped and broadly costed for consideration by Heads the following day.  

 

The game is not yet over - and CHOGM retains its capacity to surprise..

 

Spectacular ... surreal ... but South Sudan and the UAE were there!

 

From Stuart Mole, Our Man in Perth

 

29 Oct 2011
The CHOGM Opening Ceremony, at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre on the banks of the Swan River, was spectacular.

 

Admittedly, the Heads entered through the set’s central sliding door like celebrities on a late-night chat show. And the seating plan – always a test for the Secretariat – was idiosyncratic. David Cameron, languishing in the back row, was trumped by several Foreign Ministers and a High Commissioner. Goodluck Jonathan, the recently-elected President of Nigeria, scarcely did much better. The Vice-President of The Gambia, representing the former coup leader, Yahya Jammeh, enjoyed pride of place in the front row.

 

This surreal seating plan, reflected in the Official CHOGM photograph, will surely make the picture a collector’s item. See it for yourself by clicking here .

 

The best speech was given by the Queen (as is often the case). She coupled thanks to the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group for their work with a clear exhortation to Heads of Government to “agree further reforms which respond boldly to the aspirations of today and keep the Commonwealth fresh and fit for tomorrow”.

 

The turnout of Heads of Government, at 38, was slightly disappointing, with the Prime Ministers of India and New Zealand among the absentees. But 52 out of the 54 members of the Commonwealth were represented. Only the Caribbean island states of Jamaica and Dominica were not present. In the wings of CHOGM, however, were the Foreign Minister of South Sudan and, more surprisingly, a Minister of State from the United Arab Emirates, Reem Al Hashimi.

 

The Australian National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair, was sung with great skill and spirit by youth soloists and choir. As the singers began a third verse (only two are usually published) I feared we might be in for one of the original verses;

 

When gallant Cook from Albion sailed to trace wide oceans o’er;

true British courage bore him on, til he landed on our shore.

Then here he raised old England’s flag, the standard of the brave.

With all her faults we love her still, Britannia rules the wave.

 

Wisely, the politically-correct choir chose to repeat the first verse instead.

CHOGM and Human Rights in Sri Lanka

 

By Antony Ellman, Commonwealth Association member and one-time FAO Adviser to Sri Lanka

 

29 October 20111

 

 

Media attention at CHOGM 2011 has focussed on reforms to the rules of royal succession, decriminalising homosexuality, and the Eminent Persons' Group shooting itself in the foot.  Critical issues of protecting human rights, to which the Commonwealth claims a deep commitment, appear to have fallen off the agenda.

 

The Commonwealth Advisory Bureau and Commonwealth Journalists' Association held a debate in London on 17th October on whether the decision to hold CHOGM 2013 in Sri Lanka should be revoked in the light of question marks about the country's recent human rights record.  Both supporters and opponents of Sri Lanka's wish to host the summit accepted that credible evidence exists of human rights abuses, committed by both Tamil Tigers and Sri Lankan army in the last stages of the conflict. 

 

Supporters of the Government argued that these were an inevitable outcome of war, opponents argued that the alleged abuses must be objectively investigated if reconciliation between Tamils and Sinhalese is to be achieved.  The Sri Lankan Government's refusal to allow international investigation merely raises suspicions that the allegations must have some foundation. 

 

Those who favour holding CHOGM 2013 in Colombo argue that revoking this decision would merely harden attitudes within the country and impede reconciliation.  They maintain that holding the meeting in Sri Lanka puts the Government on notice to make serious moves towards democracy and reconciliation over the next 24 months, and that if such moves are not made some countries will boycott the meeting or it may be switched to another venue. 

 

Those against the proposal argue that there is no evidence at all that the Sri Lanka Government will change its behaviour as result of external pressure: they see holding the meeting in Sri Lanka as an endorsement of the Government's actions regardless of evidence suggesting human rights abuses.

 

Commonwealth leaders in Perth have agreed to a series of reforms to strengthen the Commonwealth Ministers' Action Group in its dealings with "serious or persistent violations of Commonwealth political values and principles".  Appointment of a Commissioner for Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights is under consideration.  Meanwhile charges of war crimes filed in Australia against President Rakapakse appear to have been kicked into the long grass. 

 

If CHOGM in Perth fails to insist that the human rights allegations made against both parties to the Sri Lanka conflict are fully and transparently investigated, and instead confirms without questioning the decision to hold its next meeting in Colombo, serious questions must be raised about the depth of the Commonwealth's claimed commitment to upholding human rights and the rule of law.

Renaissance for the Commonwealth or a post mortem?

 

 By Michael Holman, journalist and Commonwealth-watcher for many years

 

 

28 October 2011

 

The warning could hardly be blunter, the source more reputable, or the cause more laudable. Reform the Commonwealth or face a continuing decline to irrelevance, ten eminent politicians have told Commonwealth leaders who gather in Perth this week (October 28-30) for their biennial summit.

 

At the core of a radical report, surely as important as any in the history of the association, but in danger of being buried by bureaucrats, is a proposal that could give new hope to an ailing association.

             

The study, commissioned by the Commonwealth at the last summit in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009, calls for the creation of the office of a Commonwealth commissioner for human rights, who would have the authority to investigate member states “who regularly and persistently breach the principles”.

 

This is not the only proposal put forward. The document also calls for “bold new initiatives”, including the creation of a Commonwealth youth corps, widening and strengthening the mandate of the Secretary-General, and drawing up a Commonwealth charter.

                                                            

But the acid test, however, of the association’s commitment to change and acknowledgement of past errors, will be its response to the proposal for a Commissioner whose job will be “to provide well researched and reliable information … on serious or persistent violations of democracy, the rule of law and human rights.”

 

For too long, argue the group of ten, chaired by former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and including Sir Malcolm Rifkind, former British Foreign Secretary, the Commonwealth has tolerated dictators in its ranks, kept civil wars off its agenda, and ignored abuses of civil rights.

 

In language that pulls no punches, they warn that the association risks becoming “irrelevant” unless “urgent reforms” are introduced: “Complacency and inertia in vital aspects of the Commonwealth’s values … pose the most serious threats to the continued relevance and vitality of the Commonwealth itself.”

 

 “Unless the Commonwealth reforms its machinery and enforces the values it has espoused,” declares the group, “it will stand condemned as hypocritical or indifferent, willing to proclaim commitment to a broad set of values but unwilling to invoke its own machinery to ensure that those values are maintained.” 

                                                 

Precisely what sanction the proposed Commissioner could bring to bear is not clear; but the prospect of a senior official, empowered publicly to investigate and report on transgressors of democracy, is enough to give hope to supporters of an organisation that seemed to have run out of steam.

                                     

But it has also set alarm bells ringing in the ranks of those who have rigged elections, abused their people, or used torture as a routine. Their first reactions do not augur well for the outcome of the Perth summit.

 

At a recent briefing in London, the audience heard an outline of the contents of the 200- page report, and its 106 recommendations. But no copies were available. Although the authors are unanimous in their desire to circulate their findings, to air issues and encourage debate, certain Commonwealth governments had insisted that it remain confidential until the summit itself approved its release.

 

 “The Commonwealth is in the doldrums,” responded a senior British politician. “That is why the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) was formed at the last summit. If its main recommendations were rejected that would not only make Perth a failure - it would also confirm the growing irrelevance of the Commonwealth”.

           

It may well be too late to restore credibility to an association that embraces a quarter of the world’s population, all its main faiths, some of the richest and poorest states. Past failures are catching up on a club whose members have flouted its rules and conventions.

 

But the greatest asset of the association is an intangible one, and may yet come to the rescue in Perth. Every two years its leaders have a unique opportunity to meet colleagues, linked by a common language, a shared history and discuss sensitive issues in informal surroundings.

 

At its best, this has produced the ‘Commonwealth chemistry’ that contributed to past successes, such as the 1979 conference in Lusaka that helped ended the war in Zimbabwe. The need for this chemistry could hardly be greater, for the danger is that the ‘old’ Commonwealth, led by Australia and Britain, will be seen as lining up against the ‘new’, with some countries already being recognised as the first candidates for investigation by the proposed new  Commissioner.

 

If not, Perth will be remembered not as the occasion of a Commonwealth renaissance but as the start of an acrimonious post mortem into the failure of a once-valued organisation.

Has the Commonwealth shot itself in the foot?

 

By Commonwealth Association member Catherine Sebastian

28 October 2011

Did the Eminent Persons Group report warrant such a hesitant approach?  Can Commonwealth Association members have sight of it to come to our own decision? 

We all must agree that the need for change is a given – in fact now vital to the Commonwealth's future as an association representing over 50 countries large and small, economically viable and working towards economic independence.

At this crucial time, to signal (which is what this looks like to me) fear of change or even indecision will lead most people, even our staunchest allies, to perhaps take the view that we have no stomach for the tough times ahead or indeed the challenges associated with the push for improvement/ preparation for the ever-evolving world around us. 

What does this say about our member countries?  Is this signalling that the Commonwealth is ill-prepared for a future where decisions, challenging decisions, need to be made at some pace to ensure we remain firmly positioned to interact within the global village?  Have we shot ourselves in the foot here?

Can the report be circulated – under embargo?  I would like to read it please.

 

A PR disaster looms as that report is passed around furtively 

 

From Stuart Mole, Our Man in Perth

 

27 October 2011

 

The Commonwealth Business Forum has come and gone and the Commonwealth Peoples Forum concluded this afternoon (27 October). The Queen arrived yesterday - out of gloomy skies but to a warm welcome - and made her way to her lodgings at Government House (Her Majesty is seen, left earlier in Melbourne). Despite occasional showers, Perth is looking its best. The security presence is heavy but of benign appearance. Despite the inevitable disruption to the city’s normal life, the ‘most isolated capital in the world’ seems to be pleased to have the world on its doorstep, if only for a week.

 

The report which cannot be quoted

 

Members of the Eminent Persons Group seem to be less pleased with the recent turn of events. After deciding upon a highly open and consultative approach to their work, the EPG concluded and adopted their final report well in advance of the CHOGM.

 

Their clear hope – and plea to governments – was that the report would become a public document and be widely read and discussed, prior to Perth.

 

It was not to be.

 

Their report, A Commonwealth of People: Time for Urgent Reform, has remained under lock and key since. This decision has been laid at the door of the outgoing Chairperson-in Office, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. She is said to have ruled that as the report is to Heads, who requested it two years ago, proper process requires that it be submitted to those same Heads, in the first instance.

 

The outcome is not a happy one. The report has been widely leaked, with dog-eared samizdat copies furtively passing hands in the bars of Murray Street. Frustrated ‘eminents’ are asked, at a flurry of meetings, to introduce a report they cannot directly quote.

 

And the case for the defence has not been strengthened by some forthright comment from former Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser. He reminded a Murdoch University audience of his own involvement in the only previous EPG – the mission to apartheid South Africa of 1986 which he co-chaired.

 

That group’s report was written in 48 hours and published as a Penguin Special within a week of its approval by the group. By the time the Special Review Meeting of seven Heads of Government met in London, in August 1986, Mission to South Africa was already in the best-selling charts, with a re-print and separate French, Dutch and Japanese editions under discussion. It can be done.

 

Avoiding a public relations disaster

 

As CHOGM proper gets under way, and rumours of a tepid reaction to the report from Foreign Ministers, Heads of Government may well find their work cut out if they are not to have a public relations disaster on their hands. There is an expectation of change and reform in Perth, which leaders would be unwise to ignore.

Towards CHOGM 2011 - ah! the memories

 

From Stuart Mole, en route to Perth, Australia

23 October 2011

 

  I squeezed my suitcase closed, reflecting ruefully that it was the presence of too many documents and papers that was   once more pushing me into an excess baggage charge.

 

It is ten years since I last journeyed to Australia for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). In 2001, the world was still reeling from the horror of the attacks of 11 September on the USA. The future looked dangerously unpredictable. Few Commonwealth leaders found the prospect of air travel particularly appealing - much less, leaving their countries for Brisbane at a time of uncertainty and danger.

 

Which I thought was a mistake. It seemed to me then that the imminent summit presented a global forum like the Commonwealth with a particular opportunity to condemn terrorism, renew its belief in justice and peace and affirm human solidarity. But then, I don't recall anyone asking my opinion.

 

Nevertheless, Commonwealth and civil society organisations descended on Queensland, full of anticipation. The facilities for the summit provided by our Australian hosts, at both federal and state level, were excellent. This was not entirely unexpected, as the Head of the CHOGM Task Force was one Hugh Craft, formerly the Director of the International Affairs Division in the Commonwealth Secretariat.

 

But all this was to no avail. As I arrived in Brisbane, the news was breaking: CHOGM was cancelled (although the Commonwealth Peoples' Centre resolved to press ahead and meet as planned). Thus passed the summit that never was.

 

Memories of the abortive Brisbane summit returned as I read the Australian news. A mass protest march on CHOGM was being planned, to coincide with the opening of the Perth CHOGM by the Queen. This march on CHOGM was reminiscent of the ‘Stop CHOGM’ movement in Brisbane a decade ago.

 

My reaction then was that the added focus on CHOGM was something the Commonwealth should treat as an opportunity, rather than a threat. It would have allowed us to engage with the protestors and with the media and demonstrate that comparisons with a beleaguered G8 or European summit were misplaced,

 

This meeting, we would have argued, was not an exclusive gathering of the world's powerful and privileged. Rather, it was a much more inclusive global forum, embracing the many dimensions of wealth and poverty; size and smallness; influence and helplessness; black, brown and white.

 

The official meeting was also immediately adjacent to the Commonwealth Peoples Centre – an impressive gathering of NGOs, Commonwealth organisations and other civil society representatives. To 'stop' this gathering would have been to deny the world's powerless, impoverished and excluded nations from having the sort of dialogue on precisely those global issues of poverty and injustice which the protestors had highlighted.

 

What will happen in Perth? For many countries and commentators, this is a make or break summit, with issues of reform and leadership to the fore.

 

The report of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) – headed Time for Urgent Reform – has become something of a litmus test. The 200-page document is unequivocal. The CHOGM provides leaders with "a unique opportunity to arrest a decline in the Commonwealth's influence and significance, and reform it so that it plays a leading and beneficial role in the future. A similar opportunity may never rise again".

 

As part of its campaign, the members of the EPG have called for their report to be released to the public ahead of the meeting. This request has been denied, though the report has been extensively leaked. Some governments have already made public their opposition to key recommendations in the report.

 

We shall see. But, for the moment, I have more immediate challenges as I manhandle my large suitcase doorwards and feel the reassuring presence of tickets and passport in my jacket pocket. Australia, here I come!...

Who REALLY put Zimbabwe back on the Commonwealth agenda?

The Commonwealth Association and other organisations have been struggling since 2003 to put Zimbabwe back on the official Commonwealth agenda. The attitude has ranged from the hands-off 'it's not a member country anymore' to the back-seat 'we're waiting for a lead from Zimbabwe's neighbours.' The issue was deemed that sensitive. Meanwhile, the people of Zimbabwe suffered rampant inflation (up to a million per cent at one time), unemployment, food shortages, deteriorating health and in their thousands have left for South Africa, Botswana and further afield in search of jobs and sanctuary.

Unfortunately, Commonwealth silence on the matter was interpreted in some quarters, including in Zimbabwe, as indifference. In an attempt to highlight the Zimbabwe people's plight and force the issue on to the table, the Association and the Royal Commonwealth Society joined forces at CHOGM 2007, bringing then Opposition leader (now Prime Minister) Morgan Tsvangirai to Kampala and hosting a series of high profile events. Alas, the CHOGM 2007 communique remained silent.

The Association and a wider group of Commonwealth organisations have been busy since then monitoring political, social and economic progress in Zimbabwe. Many pressed various governments for inclusion of a statement on Zimbabwe at CHOGM 2009, lobbying for months ahead for a signal of Commonwealth care for the people of Zimbabwe and support for an eventual return to the Commonwealth. The Zimbabwe Committee, an ad hoc group of Commonwealth organisations in London, suggested a Special Programme to assist eventual reconstruction and has also met Secretary-General Sharma and written to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The small Association delegation to the Commonwealth People's Forum in Port-of-Spain in November lobbied hard for the inclusion of a paragraph in the Forum's statement of support for Zimbabwe's eventual return to the Commonwealth and was delighted when a form of this appeared in the CHOGM 2009 communique. The communique paragraph reads: 'Heads of Government welcomed the Global Political Agreement on power-sharing in Zimbabwe and expressed the hope that this would be implemented faithfully and effectively. They looked forward to the conditions being created for the return of Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth.'

The UK Government has since tried to claim that it was behind the 'Zimbabwe paragraph' (thus drawing a predictable bellicose response from President Mugabe) but we understand that it was Sharma who urged South African President Zuma to bring up the matter to fellow Heads at the Retreat. At the final Press Conference, Zuma alluded to a SADC report on political progress which had been circulated. Since Zuma took over as President, South Africa has indeed taken a more pro-active role on the Zimbabwe 'question.'

There's still a long road ahead before Zimbabwe returns to the Commonwealth, but it has at last started.

Do you have a view on how the Commonwealth can help Zimbabwe? Leave a comment at the bottom of this posting or email us at info@comassoc.org

 

Back to Square One at the Secretariat?

Veteran Secretariat watchers may be pleased to know that history DOES repeat itself.

Seventeen years since the departure of the last Assistant Secretaries-General, it looks as if this post will be revived in 2010. Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma had been pressing for the last year or so for a third Deputy position to be restored (whispers have it that he was hoping to tap a then newly-departed Director for the job) but in the end Governments only gave him the nod for an Assistant Secretary-General. Unfortunately they declined to give any extra money to go with it. Funds for this position will have to be taken fom other divisional budgets and the cries of woe are already emanating from Marlborough House.

The ASG post, as it was known in the acronym-strewn jargon of the Secretariat, was created as a means of enabling the Secretary-General to appoint someone to a very senior position in the Secretariat. At the time, the posts of DSGs were filled by persons agreed by consensus by Governments, much as the Secretary-General was (and is) by the Heads themselves. This led to a lot of cross-Commonwealth canvassing through High Commissions and although the Deputies were often able people of very high calibre, there were occasions when the process did not result in the right person filling the post.

The last two ASGs were Manmohan (Moni) Malhoutra of India and William (Bill) Montgomery of Canada who left at end July and end October 1993 respectively. Malhoutra, who had been ASG and Head of Secretary-General Sonny Ramphal's office, headed what was known as the Human Resource Development Group (education, health, management development, women and development, youth and a partial handle on the old Fellowships and Training Programme - and the old Science Council, and legal and information divisions) by the time he left. Montgomery headed up the 'CFTC' divisions: General Technical Assistance, Export Market Development, Industrial Development and the Technical Assistance Group).

Their roles were subsequently compressed into a third DSG post and by the end of that year, the three Deputies were Sir Anthony Siaguru of Papua New Guinea (Political), Sir Humphrey Maud of Britain (Economic and Social Affairs) and Nick Hare of Canada (Development Cooperation. Some time later, Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku won agreement of Governments to make DSG appointments himself.

What will Kamalesh Sharma's new ASG do? The Marlborough House grapevine has it that the new post-holder may have to tackle the Corporate Services Division (what used to be the Administration Division) which has been rife with unrest in the last few years and whose Human Resources Section (Personnel in the old days) seems to have won for itself the right to report directly to Deputy Secretary-General Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba, by-passing the Director completely.

And who will the post-holder be? Once the funding has been secured there will certainly be open competition but will the former Director in question still be a front runner?

Do you have a story to tell  about the evolving structure of the Secretariat? Leave your comment at the bottom of this posting or email us at info@comassoc.org.

Time to bring Ireland back into the fold?

Former Commonwealth Secretary-General Shridath Ramphal challenged a group of prominent civil society leaders last night in Port of Spain when he said it was time to engage with the Republic of Ireland, with the view to bringing that country back into the Commonwealth.

In a thoughtful address to mark the centenary of the Round Table, the world's oldest journal devoted to international affairs, he set out the historical background to Ireland's withdrawal in 1949, just before the London Declaration, which laid the foundation for the modern Commonwealth, was agreed. This Declaration, which came about because of the thorny issue of allegiance to the British Crown, removed that requirement by naming the British Sovereign 'Head of the Commonwealth.' It facilitated the entry of India, which had become a republic and led to the current situation where the majority of member states are now republics.

Over the years, successive Secretaries-General have had informal discussions with people from Ireland on this issue of a return but these have never borne fruit. Now, Sonny Ramphal is saying the time is ripe to revisit it and to begin a serious process of engaging with Dublin on this issue.

 

Marching along as one

28 Nov 2009
The Non-Commonwealth Three came and apparently swept all before them. Twenty-four hours after a first-ever CHOGM session with the UN Secretary-General, French president and Danish Prime Minister, Commonwealth Heads of Government issued the 'Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus: The Commonwealth Climate Change Declaration' -  and if that isn't a mouthful enough, it carries a further sub-head, 'The Challenge of Our Time.'

Essentially, the heads have pledged to work for a 'comprehensively substantial and operationally binding agreement agreement 'at the global summit on climate change in Copenhagen on 17-18 December, leading, they emphasised, 'towards a fully legally binding outcome no later than 2010.'

And how are any such operrations to be paid for? The Heads recognised the need for an early start to the provision for financial resources, especially taking up British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's plan for a Fast Start Fund, constituting grant funding. They therefore welcomed the initiative to establish, as part of a comprehensive agreement, a Copenhagen Launch Fund ,starting in 2010, building to a level of US$10 billion annually by 2012. Beyond that, this sum should increase. They felt that 10% of this fund should be decidated to small island states and associated low-lying coastal states.

Click  here  for the full statement.

 

 

Check whether your head turned up!

28 Nov 2009
Four Commonwealth countries are not attending the current CHOGM in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. They are Dominica and Solomin Islands, Fiji (which was supended from membership earlier this year) and Nauru (which is in arrears and therefore ineligible to attend).

The 32 countires which are represented by Heads of Government:

• Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Cyprus, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Kingdom, Vanuatu.

The 6 countries represented at the level of Vice-President, Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister and who are not Heads of Govenrment:

• Cameroon, Lesotho, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Zambia.

The 11 countries represented by Foreign Ministers or senior representatives:

• Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, The Gambia, Kiribati, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, St Lucia, Tuvalu.

 

 

 

 

Is Mauritius the next CHOGM host?

27 Nov 2009
Journalists from the lovely island of Mauritius are whispering that their country has put in a bid to become the hosts for the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. If successful it would be the first time one of the Indian Ocean island states acted as hosts.

Sri Lanka offered itself as host at the 2007 CHOGM but at that time, embroiled as it was with internal conflict, the offer was received formally, rather than enthusiastcally, as a 'noted' item - which must the bureaucrat's equivalent of throwing cold water on an idea. We are not sure whether Sri Lanka will renew the offer and the jungle drums have also been beating out India's name and even Australia's (Perth).

We should know by Sunday (29 Nov).

In a rancorous mood

27 Nov 2009
A little birdie tells us that Commonwealth Foreign Ministers were in a right old rancorous mood when they sat down to view drafts of various statements put before them in Port of Spain yesterday. The word is that first, they felt that a draft on climate change was being pushed on them by the meeting's chair, the minister from Trinidad and Tobago. Later, they felt that their requests for clarification of the status of suspended member Fiji were not being answered and another uproar ensued. We understand that the meeting went on until the wee hours of the morning which cannot have made the ministers' tempers any better.

Unknown to them, there have been at least a couple of gatecrashers to the meeting. Obviously, security at the Hilton Hotel was not as tight as had been hoped. The Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit Director sat in on the meeting for a few minutes before she was discovered and shown the door. However, another civil society representative sat with a delegation for a while (sadly, not during the above uproars) undetected. Today, she expressed puzzlement that more CSO representatives had not piled in behind her.

The Foreign Ministers meeting has now been over for at least 12 hour and the promised Press Conference is still not forthcoming. Nor is there any word from the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group which met yesterday. Everyone is zipping up. Wonder why?

 

 

Stunning - but where are the Heads?

17 Nov 2009
The Commonwealth summit got off to a visually stunning start today (see left) which has not hidden the gaps in the ranks of Heads of Government present. Whether from embarrassment or not, neither the Commonwealth Secretariat nor the host government had figures to hand out five hours after the curtain had come down on the Opening Ceremony.

Canny counting as the delegations were announced on stage, revealed there were as few as 32 Heads of Government - though there were whispers that a couple of 'latecomers' would be jetting in later in the day. This has to be one of the lowest numbers on record.

Worse, of 19 African member countries, only 7 had Heads of Government leading their delegations. Host Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago used his opening speech to make a joke of 'threatening' the Tanzanian President with 'dire consequences' if he did not turn up, but it was clear that many Heads of Government stayed away.

This might be down to straitened economic circumstances, considering the times, but the summit billed as crucial for a grouping struggling out of a recession year and meeting on the eve of the a critical climate change global summit in Copenhagen, seems to have been sadly overlooked. Yet no less than the UN Secretary-General, French President and Danish Prime Minister are here to 'dialogue' with Heads today and urge on them the need for the world to come together on this issue.

For the three of them to turn up here shows the urgency of the situation.

The Heads present (in no particular order): Pakistan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Grenada, Belize, Australia, Britain, Tonga, Jamaica, Barbados, Cyprus, Maldives, Ghana, South Africa, Vanuatu. India, Bangladesh, Swaziland, Mauritius, Samoa, St Kitts and Nevis, Papua New Guinea, The Bahamas, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Kenya. Antigua and Barbuda, Singapore, Tanzania, Canada, Uganda, and Trinidad and Tobago.

This list will be updated.

 

First of the scholars

Talk about coincidences: Commonwealth Association member Mark Robinson, on his way to CHOGM, stopped off for a couple of days in lovely Tobago and stayed, on someone's recomemndation, at the house of a semi-retired Harvard University professor. It turns ou that the professor is Hollis Lynch who was in the first batch of scholars in the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Programme (CSFP), now in its 40th year.

Even after all these years, Lynch, who is Tobagan, remains full of praise for the contribution CSFP has made to scholars all over the Commonwealth, and to the Commonwealth for its comitment to international dialogue.

The CSFP has, of course, been rocked by the withdrawal from its funding of GBP2 million by the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. At the time, Commonwealth Association members responded handsomely by siging a petition against the decision.

 

Commonwealth democracy credentials shaken

24 Nov 2009
The Commonwealth's democracy credentials were taken by the scruff of the neck and severely shaken yesterday by a report, Democracy in the Commonwealth, which was simultaneously launched in London and Port of Spain, Trinidad. Authored by 3 electoral and human rights notables, and backed by the Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, who wrote the foreword, the 100-page report puts a failing mark on the association's current watchdog role. The report can be found by clicking on the link here .

Among the recommendations:
1.  That the Commonwealth be mandated to automatically observe any member states' elections instead of waiting to be invited;
2.  That regular democratic 'health checks' be made on member states - it has been suggested that civil society could undertake this; 
3.  That the watchdog body CMAG (the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group) is no vigilant or tough enough when serious and persistent violations of democracy and good governance are brought before it.

The report's authors - Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairof the Electoral Commission of Africa, Asma Jahangir, Chair of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and Tim Sheehy, a governance expert and consultant, also said that there was a need for more courageous leadership in the Commonwealth.

Whether you agree with the recommendations or not, this will make a disturbing report, coming as it does 18 years after the groundbreaking Harare Declaration.

The report was commissioned by the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit and Electoral Reform International Services and (surprise!) was done with the co-operation of the Commonwealth Secretariat. We understand that the Secretariat and Australiam Government funded the study.

Makes you wonder about how the Secretariat is rteacting to this criticism. So far, they're keeping mum. In fact, they're keeping mum about quite a lot of things.

 

 

UN SG, Sarkozy and Danish PM for CHOGM?

Extraordinary news filtering out of Port of Spain that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen might attend CHOGM. And not just as Special Guests to warm the plush seats of the new Conference Centre off the Savannah: There are whispers that they may take a more active part in lobbying for suppport for key issues at next month's world summit on climate change in Copenhagen.

CHOGM 'purists' may have a heart attack over that one as their presence could put some of the Commonwealth leaders - used to their exclusive 72 hours in the limelight - in the shade.

At one time, there was even wild talk that US President Obama and Brazilian President Lula, as well as other G20 leaders, would be on Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning's invitation list - that is, G20 leaders other than the Commonwealth's own Gordon Brown (UK), Manmohan Singh (India), Stephen Harper (Canada) and Kevin Rudd (Australia).

There has been speculation that Manning may be using CHOGM as an occasion for some international grandstanding, but others believe that the Commonwealth chairman-designate is determined that CHOGM proceedings should break out of the box. And what better place to get high-level consensus than at a summit of 53 countries on the eve of a crucial global climate change conference?

The thing is: What exactly will Ban, Sarkozy and Rasmussen do? Will they speak to leaders at the Executive Session where climate change will be discussed? What will that do to the concept that this is the one occasion that Commonwealth leaders can confer among themselves (after all they meet Ban, Sarkozy and Rasmussen at other conferences)?  One hardly images that a trio of such stature will be content with lobbying around the fringes.

 

That Robinson Crusoe feeling!

Jargon on national youth policy has been filled with the mind-numbing word 'mainstreaming' in recent years. So it's

a little surprising to find that the Commonwealth Youth Forum 2009 has been shunted out to the tiny, but picturesque island of Tobago. Why the relative but splendid isolation for tomorrow's generation away from the mainstream and on one of the Caribbean's loveliest tourist islands? One would have thought that a spell on Trinidad itself, witnessing the battle against the mainly South American drug cartels, who have induced the rise in killings and robberies on some pretty mean streets after dark, would provide a more suitable 'mainstream' ambience. It's called life's lessons.

Nevertheless, to ensure that the darlings of the next generation do not completely get carried away with that Robinson Crusoe feeling, lots of serious adults in suits came for the colourful opening of the Forum today (Saturday 21 November). The Forum's theme? Invest in Youth, Sustain the World. Let's hope they get off the Tobago beaches long enough to ponder that.\

At least they should be fit and tanned!

 

 The SG's a tease! 

Secretrary-General Kamalesh Sharma is getting a reputation as a tease. At  9 November's      media conference in  London, he trailed interesting ideas in his trademark management-speak (e.g. 'tipping point organisation with modest financial means but unlimited intellectual capacity') mixed with creative phraseology (exactly what are 'environment good offices'?).

 He's putting before Heads of Government at CHOGM his idea for a Partnership Portal, an IT-based (and we hear Tata-driven) web site which will put 'potential partners in direct touch with each other'. The mind boggles at this 21st Century dating-type agency which will range over the Commonwealth's 2 billion people, tangling them in miles of fibre optics. He called in a transactional dimension.

Sharma is also proposing to gather an 'everything pertaining to mainstreaming of youth in national policy' in one rich and comprehensive resource - probably linked to said Portal above as it's supposed to help policy makers.

The Secretariat also hopes to form a network of electoral management bodies, a peer group who can share 'best practice' and thus act a learning group, raising the standards as they interact.

We can't wait for CHOGM to come around..

Is this the end of the era of "Call me Don"? as the fourth Commonwealth Secretary-General (2000-2008), the laid back, informal Don McKinnon of New Zaland was wont to say?

For bang on time for Commonwealth Day 2009, almost a year after he stepped down from office, McKinnon has been appointed as Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order by The Queen. Awards in the Royal Victorian Order are made personally by The Queen for services to the sovereign.

Surely it will have to be Sir Donald from now, except when he's in New Zealand where they're not keen on standing on ceremony? Sir Don, somehow does not have the same ring!