Commonwealth has “defied prophets of doom” to remain relevant and credible

The chief political advisor at the Commonwealth Secretariat has countered the suggestion that the Commonwealth is in need of urgent life-support.

Amitav Banerji told a conference at the Centres d’Etudes Anglophones at the Université Paris Diderot, that “the Commonwealth has defied the prophets of doom and survived many obituaries in order to remain relevant and credible. It has done so by consistently evolving and adapting to changing needs and new challenges over the last sixty years.”

Among the issues Mr Banerji cites as examples of the modern Commonwealth showing both relevance and resilience are how the association dealt with the fissures caused by the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Rhodesia in 1965 and subsequently apartheid in South Africa.

“In each case, the Commonwealth managed to achieve consensus and to prevent a dangerous rupture, showing maturity and farsightedness,” he explained.

Redefining fundamental values

Mr Banerji also flagged the Harare Declaration, agreed by Commonwealth leaders when they met in Zimbabwe in 1991, as an example of the association maintaining credibility. This Declaration redefined the association’s fundamental values, and since it was adopted twelve countries have moved from being one-party or military ruled states to multi-party democracy.

Four years later came the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, commonly known as CMAG, which was set up to address serious or persistent violations of the Harare Principles, assess the nature of any infringement and recommend measures for collective action from member countries.

With the creation of this watchdog, Mr Banerji said that “the Commonwealth became a trailblazer in applying peer pressure, with a sanctions regime for derogations from constitutional rule that even the UN does not possess to this day, that some other inter-governmental organisations, including the Organisation International de la Francophonie, have tried to emulate with mixed success, and that yet others will probably never dare to contemplate.”

Moving with the times

Throughout his speech Mr Banerji focused on portraying the Commonwealth as an organisation that considers identity a dynamic concept - not a static one – one that moves with the times.

He alluded to the recent admission of Rwanda to the Commonwealth, a country without a historical or administrative link with another Commonwealth country that Heads of Government had decided to admit based on the merits of the case. He had no doubt that Rwanda would be a serious and active member of the association.

He acknowledged that the Commonwealth consistently has to deal with many challenges that have the potential to undermine it.

These challenges include: ensuring the unwavering commitment of some of its larger members; struggling to keep the organisation relevant to all its members; and battling the constraint of resources.

The latter point was flagged in The Commonwealth Conversation, which called for greater resources for an organisation that has “a workforce half a per cent of the United Nations and an annual budget less than one per cent of the UK Department of International Development”.

This point in the report - billed as the largest ever public consultation on the future of the Commonwealth - as well as its efforts to enhance awareness of the Commonwealth was praised by Mr Banerji.