Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting Research Articles

Review: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2009, the Commonwealth Yearbook 2009, the Contemporary Commonwealth An Assessment

COMMONWEALTH HEADS OF GOVERNMENT MEETING 2009 London: Henley Media Group, 2009. 196PP, /35.00 ISBN 978-0-9563722-3-9THE COMMONWEALTH YEARBOOK 2009 Cambridge: Nexus Strategie Partnerships, 2009. 686pp, /64.99 ISBN 978-0-9549629-9-9THE CONTEMPORARY COMMONWEALTH An Assessment 1965-2009 James MayaU, editor Abingdon: Routledge for Round Table, 2010. 230PP, /75.00 ISBN 978-0-41548277-6Together this trio of new analyses about commonwealths provides insights not only into their continuing development but also into contours of contemporary governance. This year's centenary of Round Table, now The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs but originally A Quarterly Review of Politics of British Empire, is symptomatic of nonstate, transnational genesis of leading networks: Commonwealth Parliamentary Association turns 100 in 2011, as does Association of Commonwealth Universities in 2013. As global governance becomes ever more ubiquitous and diverse, we need to recognize novel sources of analyses and catalysts. Despite their somewhat dated image, commonwealths, in part because of their relative unimportance, are in vanguard of identifying and addressing emergent global issues.Only one of three books under review is a traditional academic collection. The Contemporary Commonwealth celebrates Round Table's centenary as oldest journal of international relations, at least in Anglophone world. The other pair are recent issues of regular annual or biennial glossy coUections published by up-market commercial presses, funded by institutional advertising. The largest, at almost 700 pages (including 114 pages of fuU-colour ads), is Yearbook from Commonwealth Secretariat, and smaller, at just under 200 pages (but 61 pages of advertising), is for biennial Commonwealth summit. In their individual statements and corporate ads, these two books display extensive reach of commonwealth plus, ostensibly celebrating its 60th year, in myriad partnerships across multiple sectors, including communications, education, and services.Following sometimes controversial yet ultimately successful Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October 2010, next major Commonwealth event is heads-of-govemment meeting to be held in Perth in October 2011. My institute of international relations was pleased to be associated with some ofthe nonstate features ofthe last such meeting in Trinidad and Tobago in November 2009, such as people's forum organized by Commonwealth Foundation. And we were proud to host biennial Round Table seminar and dinner in wings, where academic coUection edited by James MayaU was launched and discussed. On its 99th birthday, Round Table honoured second secretary-general ofthe Commonwealth, Sonny Ramphal from Guyana, who in his talk discussed whether Ireland could yet rejoin Commonwealth family foUowing India's lead on latter' s adoption of republican status.The Mayall collection of a dozen original chapters provides an informed assessment of Commonwealth performance, from establishment of both secretariat and foundation in 1965. The essays cover commonwealths' own evolution, institutions, and leadership; their relations through foundation and business coundl with nonstate actors, especiaUy civu society and private sector, respectively; and their distinctive connections and contributions in several regions in which they operate: Africa, Asia, Canada and Caribbean, Europe, and Pacific. The title also includes an invaluable three-page annotated bibliographical note by Terry Barringer.In terms of understanding and advancing global governance, most salient and best informed chapters are by Richard Bourne on civu society and Ron Sanders on smaU, especially Caribbean, states. Bourne reflects on development of Commonwealth norms beyond formal democracy towards human rights, noting that the [Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative] story also iUustrates potential for friction between unofficial and official Commonwealth, between an association of governments and an association of peoples (130). …

‘A Great Global Good?’ Reviewing the Modern Commonwealth

The 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting has inaugurated another High-level Review of the Commonwealth and an Eminent Persons Group. This article considers previous reviews and the potential and prospects of this latest one. It reports on the Round Table Centenary Conference held at Cumberland Lodge in January 2010, which was devoted to a critical study of Commonwealth institutions and processes.

International Disaster Response Law and the Commonwealth: Answering the Call to Action

In 2005, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting issued a ‘call to action’ for improving disaster management, ensuring effective and timely humanitarian assistance and strengthening the international response system. With weather and climate‐related hazards on the rise, coupled with their increasing impact on vulnerable people and economies, it has become critical to answer this call. Significant progress can be made through the elimination or reduction of the many legal and bureaucratic barriers that continue to plague international relief. This article explores how the Commonwealth, and indeed the international community as a whole, can learn from recent research in this area and take steps to implement the Guidelines for the Domestic Facilitation and Regulation of International Disaster Relief and Initial Recovery Assistance (‘IDRL Guidelines’) and improve legal preparedness for disaster response.

Legal Referral Service (HIPC Clinic)*

1. In Abuja, Nigeria, in December 2003, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) recognized that the debt burden in developing Member States constitutes a major obstacle in allocating r...

Twenty Commonwealth steps from Singapore to Kampala

The 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Uganda faces several critical issues—among them, the situations in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The venue is politically controversial and the leaders will also find they can no longer ignore the situation in Zimbabwe. In Kampala they will elect the fifth Commonwealth Secretary-General and decide on whether the association's membership should be widened. The author, a long-time member of The Round Table Moot, has covered 19 CHOGMs as a journalist. He looks at the prospects for Kampala and gives some personal views on the future development of the Commonwealth.

The Iwokrama Centre and Forest: Introduction to Special Papers

Abstract The Iwokrama Programme is a partnership between the Commonwealth and the people of Guyana. Iwokrama brings together local people, national and international interests in a variety of businesses. The idea of Iwokrama was born during the 1989 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and Iwokrama has grown to be the Commonwealth's Flagship environment project. Iwokrama is a working example of developing partnerships for effective natural resource management and sustainable human development. This paper describes the background to Iwokrama and the role of the faunal surveys of the Iwokrama Forest led by the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia in the early development of Iwokrama. Thirty researchers spent over thirty months in the Iwokrama Forest, a virtually pristine tropical rainforest, between July 1996 and January 1998. These researchers came from more than ten research institutes to carry out the faunal surveys of the Iwokrama Forest. This work has made the fauna of the Iwokrama Forest one ...

Abuja and after: the case for change in the Commonwealth secretariat*

After the single‐issue Abuja Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, a deep, intellectual examination of the Commonwealth apparatus of Secretariat and Secretary‐General is needed. Large and bold decisions, and bold steps are required to transform the Commonwealth to meet the new realities of international relations. The capacity of the current Political Affairs Division should be upgraded and expanded at the expense of other areas of Secretariat activity, and the Secretariat should be honed into a small team of senior, experienced and internationally wise advisers to a Secretary‐General who is able to operate as an intellectually formed negotiating figure in international relations.

Promoting freedom of expression in the Commonwealth

When the 1991 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting adopted the Harare Declaration, it committed the Commonwealth to 'democracy, democratic processes and institutions, the rule of law and fundamental human rights'. The essential precondition to achieving these goals is freedom of expression. Were free expression to be limited throughout the Commonwealth, the Declaration could become a hollow historical curiosity. The Commonwealth Association for Education in Journalism and Communication (CAEJC) was founded in 1985. At its peak it numbered 700 members in 35 different Commonwealth states. It publishes a journal and a newsletter and has prepared a database of Commonwealth journalism educators. As an organization of persons involved in the training of journalists, the CAEJC is interested in freedom of expression.

The Balfour Formula and the Evolution of the Commonwealth

The 75th anniversary of the 1926 Imperial Conference in London—almost coinciding, as it does, with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane—is an appropriate moment to look again at the work of the Conference and to assess its significance for the subsequent evolution of the Commonwealth. This article surveys the context in which the Imperial Conference of 1926 met; describes the work of the Balfour Committee and the developments leading to the Statute of Westminster; analyses the outcome; and finally offers some reflections from the standpoint of the 21st century.

Time for America to Join the Commonwealth

IT IS TIME FOR THE UNITED STATES to join the Commonwealth. Membership in the Commonwealth would facilitate the kind of globalization that is in the American national interest, and it would serve as a hedge against the emergence of a less benign international order based on civilizational power politics. In return, United States membership would offer the Commonwealth a much-needed shot in the arm in terms of resources and ideas that could transform it from a persistent underachiever into a leading model of transcivilizational co-operation.At the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) in Durban, South Africa, in November 1999, Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, called for new thinking about modernizing the Commonwealth to make it more effective. A critical element in this new thinking should be a discussion of United States membership, so that it can be on the agenda of the next CHOGM in Australia in November 2001.Before any such discussion can take place, however, two important emotional roadblocks have to be clared out of the way. On the American side is what may be termed '1776 and all that.'The Commonwealth, like the Empire before it, is seen as a British operation, and a monarchical one too. Much as they enjoy the activities of the British Royal Family as a spectator sport, for the citizens of a country conceived in liberty and republican virtue, bowing, scraping and dressing up at their behest is out of the question. There can be no going back.On the Commonwealth side are fears about their own version of le defi Americain. The United States, it is suggested, would become impatient with the consensual and pragmatic way in which the Commonwealth moves towards modest achievements. Americans have never known an international organization they did not create or aspire to own, and their tendency to deal in moral absolutes, of both right and left, would lead them to wreck the Commonwealth by trying to get their way. The Commonwealth, say its keenest supporters, is really a self-help organization of developing states that, for historical reasons, just happens to have some medium-sized developed members. The United States is too big and rich to be one of the former and lacks the historical links and experience to be one of the latter.Doubts on both sides are fuelled by strong emotions, but they lack foundation in the world of facts. The Commonwealth is not a British operation and no one, including Britain, wants it to be. British influence in the Commonwealth today rests on the wealth and power that it, as one of several wealthy members, is prepared to commit to the organization. The Foreign Policy Institute, a think tank close to the present Labour government, has suggested that the Commonwealth secretariat might be moved from London, and the British government has severed its final links with the Commonwealth Institute, making the latter fully independent.Nor is the Commonwealth a monarchical organization in any significant sense. The CHOGM in Durban celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the London Declaration, which, prompted by India's decision to abandon its dominion status and become a republic, made it possible for republics to retain their Commonwealth membership after independence. From that point on, the British monarch served only as a 'symbol of the free association' of its independent members in what is known as the modern Commonwealth.Membership has not compromised the identities of the 33 republics that are already members of the Commonwealth, many of whom had a much rougher experience than the United States at the hands of British colonialism. Similarly, membership would not entangle the United States in the monarchial intimacies and imperial ambitions of London. On the contrary, Commonwealth membership would place it in an organization in which it was equipped to do well.For this very reason, Commonwealth insecurities are harder to dismiss. While United States membership would change the Commonwealth, it is clear that, in the words of one writer in the Commonwealth journal, Roundtable, the United States 'undoubtedly qualifies under the IGCCM criteria. …

The Durban summit and beyond - whither the Commonwealth

The future role of the Commonwealth Ministers' Action Group in promoting good governance, the significance of the Fancourt Declaration in the continuing negotiations over world trade, and the swift implementation of debt relief for the world's poorest countries are among issues discussed at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting highlighted by the retiring secretary-general. Chief Anyaoku also outlines the proposals for speeding up moves towards gender equality, and for greater priority to be attached to research into the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. He identifies four challenges for the future: converting the Fancourt Declaration into a programme of action; combating the threat from increased intolerance and xenophobia in pluralistic states; improved exploitation of connections for expanded trade and investment within the Commonwealth; the Commonwealth's function as a mechanism for building inter-regional consensus between emerging regional blocs.

The united kingdom, the commonwealth and the European Union

The Edinburgh Declaration, which closed the 1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, emphasized the need to identify and make use of trade and investment opportunities in an increasingly globalized world. Britain, at the centre of the development of the European Union despite its hesitancy over Economic and Monetary Union, also has a role as a foothold for overseas investment in Europe. The Commonwealth is part of Britain's overseas involvement for strong economic and political reasons.

Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group: An Update

The establishment of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) was noted in [1996] J.A.L. 123. CMAG submitted a report covering three countries, i.e. The Gambia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Edinburgh, Scotland, in October, 1997. Paragraphs 12–17 of the Edinburgh Communiqué set out the reponse of Commonwealth Heads of Government to the Report:

The Commonwealth and the British Council

The 1996 House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Report on the future of the Commonwealth gave added impetus to the recognition of the importance of Commonwealth ties and networks. The prominence given to the shared language and common core of cultural attitudes and political beliefs encouraged the British Council, which is active in many countries in the main areas outlined by the Foreign Affairs Committee, to review its role in giving greater emphasis to the Commonwealth dimension. The Council is participating in many of the events scheduled for the UK Year of the Commonwealth, leading up to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Edinburgh in October, and has set the creation of better links with Commonwealth organisations as a priority. Key areas include the teaching of English, education and training, dissemination of good practice in government, the information technologies, youth and sport, and culture and the arts.

Nigeria and the commonwealth

The death sentences on Nigerian writer Kenule Saro‐Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists in November 1995 overshadowed all other matters at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Auckland. Their execution while the assembled heads were pleading for their lives was a reckless defiance of Commonwealth and world opinion. Nigeria has been a central figure in Commonwealth affairs since its independence and had become a important financial cornerstone of the organization. But the country's political problems and the military regime's human rights abuses had taken their toll and before the 1995 Commonwealth summit there was mounting international anger and pressure for sanctions. But the regime was, apparently, unaware of the extent to which the international community had lost patience. Suspension from membership was greeted with defiance by the Nigerian foreign ministry, betraying a poor understanding of the workings of the international system. But sanctions were limited to threats and gestures and the Nigerian government escaped with its intransigence unchecked. In November, at the Heads of Government Meeting in Edinburgh, Commonwealth leaders are obliged to review the Nigerian situation. The Commonwealth's credibility in the international community may be determined by the decisions they take.

The commonwealth must not wake up feeling terrible

As the Millennium approaches, the future of the Commonwealth will depend on how it responds to four main issues—its role in relation to small states, its readiness to discipline wrong‐doing in member countries; the criteria for expansion of its membership; and the strengthening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The Commonwealth must continue to help its smaller member states with bread‐and‐butter issues to enable them to retain national autonomy and maintain the welfare of their peoples. The extension of the remit of the Ministerial Action Group set up after the execution of Ken Saro‐Wiwa in Nigeria from its present focus on three Commonwealth military regimes to other governments seriously and persistently violating the principles of the Harare Declaration is essential to the credibility of the Commonwealth. The potential loss of the shared foundation of the Commonwealth by the admission of member states which lack the common legal and administrative processes, educational background and t...

Commonwealth Africa Human Rights Conference

The first Commonwealth Africa Human Rights Conference (CAHRC) took place in Harare, Zimbabwe between 11–14 October 1991 and immediately preceded the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Organized by three local non-governmental organizations, it brought together participants from 14 Commonwealth African nations together with South Africa. NGOs represented included the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (The Gambia); Kituo Cha Sheria (Kenya); the Civil Liberties Organization (Nigeria); the Legal Assistance Centre (Namibia); the Legal Resources Centre (South Africa); Uganda Human Rights Activists; and Women in Law and Development in Africa (Mauritius and Tanzania). The conference was informed that one Nigerian participant, Femi Falana, the President of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, was prevented by his government from leaving Nigeria. Participants unanimously condemned this action and a communication to this effect was sent to the Nigerian Head of State who was attending CHOGM.

Changing Directions in Foreign Policy Trends: A Comparative Analysis of Malaysia´s Bilateral Relations with Britain and Singapore in 1981

The year 1981 may be considered momentous for Malaysia in so far as foreign policy trends were concerned. For in that year dramatic changes in Malaysia's bilateral ties with two of its closest associates, one in Europe and the other in Southeast Asia, took place. Relations with Britain which had traditionally been cordial with its numerous close links, took a turn for the worse. Among other things, Malaysia reviewed its trading links with Britain with a view to ending the latter's traditional privileged position compared with other countries. Dr Mahathir, as Malaysia's fourth Prime Minister, took the unpre cedented step of snubbing the British Commonwealth by not attend ing the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Melbourne. Conversely, ties with Singapore which had been charac terized by mutual suspicion and mistrust as a result of the Alliance/People's Action Party (PAP) acrimony in the aftermath of Singapore's separation in 1965, improved considerably. Dr Mahathir and his Singapore counterpart, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, were able to resolve almost all the outstanding bilateral issues between the two countries during the Malaysian Prime Minister's first official visit to the island republic on 17 and 18 December 1981. At the conclusion of Dr Mahathir's visit, both Prime Ministers declared that the goodwill each had shown the other should be sustained to strengthen further the existing cordial ties between the two countries. This article seeks to examine the causes for the changing trends in Malaysia's foreign policy in so far as bilateral ties with Britain and Singapore are concerned. An analysis of these causes and their implications will hopefully provide some insight into how future bila teral ties with the two countries concerned will be conducted by Malaysia.