Kamalesh Sharma told the Round Table conference in London that all Commonwealth member countries are engaged in the “difficult but important exercise of democracy.”
Commonwealth deals in solutions not criticisms
24 June 2010
‘Our business is not naming names and ranking performance’ – Secretary-General
The Commonwealth’s task is not to publicly criticise its member countries for flouting the association’s values, but instead to deal in solutions and actively support states on their respective democratic journeys.
“Our business is not naming names and ranking performance,” Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said on 23 June. “We deal in solutions, not criticisms, and our task is to support precisely every Commonwealth member state on the path to democracy.”
The Secretary-General was speaking in London at a conference marking the 100th anniversary of the Round Table, a journal which provides analysis and commentary on all aspects of international affairs.
Mr Sharma told the conference that all Commonwealth member countries are engaged in the “difficult but important exercise of democracy.” He continued by saying that “all should be thus engaged with commitment and humility; all can learn and share in the process; all should show solidarity with each other.”
The Secretary-General used his speech to focus on the seven different areas in which the Commonwealth helps its member countries with the “unending, but we hope inexorably improving Commonwealth task: to make democracy a way of life”. They are:
- The Commonwealth’s stated democratic values
- The work of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group
Full speech
Click here to read
- Good Offices work (which refers to the conflict prevention and resolution work carried out in Commonwealth countries)
- Election work
- Human Rights work
- Building up the institutions and mechanics of democracy
- Promoting the role of democracy of civil society, of women, of young people, and the media
In order to support his argument that the Commonwealth’s under-the-radar work is often more effective than publicly voicing criticisms whenever problems arise, Mr Sharma mentioned the recent Ugandan homosexuality bill. With this bill, Mr Sharma said that he hoped that “behind the scenes work, in a spirit of transparency and respect, contributed in the retracting of a bill which had attracted international concern.
“In public, we uphold the position that Uganda must decide its own affairs, that its laws are sovereign, and that its parliament is indeed is indeed the place to debate them...In private, we can talk about support, solutions, and options in a climate of trust.”
The Secretary-General then mentioned the Commonwealth’s “quiet engagement (respectful of their sovereignty) with the government of Malawi over the recent release from imprisonment of two homosexual men, [which] in fact led, I am told, to public recognition in the media in Lilongwe.”
Having cited these two examples, Mr Sharma recognised that a balance needs to be struck between quiet engagement on the one hand, and public understanding of where the Commonwealth stands.
“Without prejudicing what we can achieve with our ‘below-the-radar’ engagement, we need to uphold the Commonwealth of values in the public eye.”
delicious
digg
reddit
facebook
stumbleupon