New Year Message from Don McKinnon, Commonwealth Secretary-General
1 January 2008
The transition to a new year invariably gives rise to a mix of sentiments -- hope, trepidation, nostalgia, relief, reflection, but most of all of renewal and anticipation. It would have been no different as 2007 gave way to 2008
For the Commonwealth, the year was made momentous by our biennial gathering of Heads of Government. The Kampala CHOGM was a ringing reaffirmation of the relevance and credibility of our association. Our leaders gave us many mandates, covering a range of pressing issues, all designed to improve the lives of the nearly two billion people that inhabit our Commonwealth.
Heads of Government endorsed the report called Civil Paths to Peace, produced by some of the best minds in the Commonwealth, which looked at how and why some diverse Commonwealth communities thrive, while others don’t. It asked why some transcend religious, ethnic, linguistic and other barriers, and some don’t. In the Commonwealth way, Heads pledged to share the best of their thinking and their actions.
They did the same with the Lake Victoria Commonwealth Climate Change Action Plan, with an eye on the environmental catastrophe that hangs over us all, and the Kampala Declaration on Transforming Societies to Achieve Political, Economic and Human Development, with the goal of helping to fast-track the gains of development.
This must continue to be the way for this Commonwealth family of 53 nations, whose diversity is matched by its unity over the values it espouses, and its commitment - individually and collectively - to see them put into practice.
Our Commonwealth values will continue to lead us to work in the two, inherently linked, fields of strengthening democracy and promoting development.
Our challenges remain daunting. In the dying days of 2007, we saw terrible tragedy in Pakistan, and appalling violence in Kenya; in both situations, we are seeking actively to help. But we also saw other member states take strides in the consolidation of the democracy we hold so dear. In September, for instance, power changed hands peacefully in Sierra Leone, as a nation sought to act as one in continuing to rebuild after the nightmare of its civil war of just a few years ago.
The Commonwealth message is that of Lincoln: that democracy is government of, for and by the people. It legitimately takes many different forms; it is ‘work-in-progress’ even in its longest-standing and most economically advanced practitioners; it requires painstaking work to build up the institutions which allow it to function fairly and efficiently. Yet, at its core, the primacy of the people remains untouched.
Development, too, is about the primacy of the people – their rights and their natural aspirations. As 2007 becomes 2008, there is no sign of the Doha Round of trade negotiations producing the development dividend it was meant to deliver. Moreover, the Cotonou Agreement expires and many in our African, Caribbean and Pacific constituencies still await the conclusion of Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union. Trade will always be the single most powerful motor for development, and our small and least developed member states legitimately feel badly let down.
The unschooled, the diseased, the young, the women and girls who bear so disproportionate a share of our development burden: these will continue to be the people to whom we devote our best Commonwealth energies in 2008.
For all the problems that still need to be resolved, and the challenges to be met, the Commonwealth is in good shape and has much to celebrate in the transition to a new year. We enter 2008 with optimism and determination, with the interests and welfare of our Commonwealth citizens central to our goals.
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