The Ingram Column: A surge of new activity for the Commonwealth

This Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad opened amid much talk that the Commonwealth is becoming irrelevant.

My often expressed view is that it is an association without precedent in history and that after 60 years existence it is historically still only in its earliest stages.

This CHOGM has done much to reinforce that. It has been a highly productive meeting.

The timing just a week before the UN environment conference in Copenhagen, dictated that the dominant issue would be climate change and the appearance of non-Commonwealth players, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the chairman of the Copenhagen talks, Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen, and President Sarkozy of France, broke new ground.

Agreement on a strong Commonwealth statement intended to give a lead to the world, was a considerable achievement since up till a few days ago Canada and India, for two, did not seem to be on side on carbon emission.

The hope is that a united Commonwealth stand at Copenhagen will give a lead to the world, but whether this works out we can only wait and see.

That issue aside, the communiqué from CHOGM is one of the most constructive for a long time, reinforcing and strengthening many of the Commonwealth’s existing activities and introducing new ones.

The self-disciplinary Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), which has powers to suspend member countries that become non-democratic and violate human rights, is to be strengthened.

After CMAG came into being in 1995 it became impossible for a Commonwealth country ever again to fall under military rule. If that happens it is suspended, as Fiji Islands is now and Pakistan was twice.

CMAG has a new look. Five new countries are on the group of nine CMAG members, rotated every two years, named in Trinidad. They include the Maldives which recently became properly democratic after 27 years under one president.

After Robert Mugabe pulled Zimbabwe out of membership at the end of the Abuja CHOGM in 2003 the Commonwealth made little attempt to re-engage with it. At two CHOGMs the subject was not discussed.

Now in Trinidad, where South African new president Jacob Zuma was present at his first CHOGM, Heads talked about it again and no doubt keenly listened to his view of the situation across his border.

They said in their communiqué that they “looked forward to the conditions being created for the return of Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth.”

For some years the Commonwealth has run a small states office in New York where small member countries which cannot afford separate offices to service their UN delegations operate under one Commonwealth roof.

Now they are to set up a similar office in Geneva where they need to be in continuous touch with so many UN bodies. India will help to pay for this office which may be set up as a co-operative venture with La Francophonie.

In Trinidad the Commonwealth has set up a network of National Election Management Bodies that will enhance the capacity of member countries to hold credible elections that enjoy the peoples’ confidence.

What is known in the Commonwealth as an Eminent Persons Group will aim to reform Commonwealth institutions and streamline them into a more effective framework.

All this, as is said at the end of a document that aims to boil down into one five pages the various declarations dating back to the Singapore Declaration of 1971, is to ensure that “the Commonwealth will remain relevant to its times and people in future”.

Derek Ingram

Key Links:

• The Ingram column: The Heads are going for green
• Profile: Derek Ingram
• Country Profile: Trinidad and Tobago