Text size

The Ingram Column: McKinnon suggests stricter rules for membership

22 November 2005

Derek Ingram - My View

"We cannot claim global leadership until our own house is fully in order."

In a speech in Malta on human rights, Secretary-General Don McKinnon told the Commonwealth: "We cannot claim global leadership until our own house is fully in order." Then he suggested that in future the criteria for continued membership of the association and for those countries seeking to join or rejoin might become stricter.

He reminded Commonwealth members that in 1991 they solemnly stated in their Harare Declaration that "… we recognise racial prejudice and intolerance as a dangerous sickness and a threat to healthy development and racial discrimination as an unmitigated evil."

Yet, he said, some Commonwealth members have still not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. He added: "It is almost unbelievable, and we can take no satisfaction from that, let alone claim to moral leadership."

McKinnon also said that 18 of the 53 Commonwealth members have still not signed up to two other conventions - the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Both became international law 30 years ago. McKinnon said: "In my view that is exactly 18 too many."

He added: "I think it possible to see a day where ratifying the two conventions … becomes the minimum standard for becoming a full Commonwealth member."

These were the strongest words that any Secretary-General has made on human rights within the Commonwealth. They were made at the end of a Commonwealth Human Rights Forum which drew attention to the current situations in Uganda, Maldives and to the country that withdrew from the Commonwealth at the last CHOGM in 2003, Zimbabwe.

The Forum, which was organised by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), called for a fact-finding mission to be sent to Uganda to assess compliance with international human rights standards and the Commonwealth Harare Principles in the context of Uganda's proposed hosting of CHOGM in 2007.

At the Commonwealth summit in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1995, the leaders took what was, for an international organisation, a revolutionary step. It set up the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) - a watchdog body of eight foreign ministers which could be empowered to monitor the democratic and human rights performance of member countries.

CMAG has notched up considerable success and as a result military rule has been all but eliminated from the Commonwealth. Over the years, Nigeria, The Gambia, Cameroon, Fiji Islands and Pakistan have come under scrutiny. Fiji and Pakistan were suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth after coups. Both are now back in full membership, but President Robert Mugabe pulled Zimbabwe out of from membership at the end of the 2003 CHOGM in Abuja, Nigeria.

The CHRI is now one of the strongest and most influential non-official organisations. It was founded in the UK by groups representing lawyers, journalists, doctors and trade unionists. Later, its headquarters was moved to New Delhi. It has sent human rights missions to several Commonwealth countries. At each CHOGM it launches a report on human rights problems. This year it has produced the results of an investigation into policing in Commonwealth countries.

* The views and comments in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Commonwealth Secretariat.