The Abuja Summit

Commonwealth Heads of Government met in Abuja, Nigeria, from 5 to 8 December 2003. The Meeting was hosted by the Government of Nigeria and chaired by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. Of the 51 countries attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), 38 were represented by their Heads of State or Government.

Commonwealth leaders received the Report of the Expert Group on Development and Democracy and the Report of the Secretary-General, which complemented the Theme of the Meeting, ‘Development and Democracy: Partnership for Peace and Prosperity’.

On 7 December, Heads of Government issued the CHOGM Statement on Zimbabwe. At the conclusion of the Meeting, on 8 December, they issued the Abuja Communiqué, the Aso Rock Commonwealth Declaration on the CHOGM Theme, and the Aso Rock Statement on Multilateral Trade.

All these documents can be found on the Commonwealth Secretariat’s website, www.thecommonwealth.org, and on the official CHOGM 2003 site, http://www.chogm2003.info/. Some are also included in this week’s CNIS (Issue 165).

Also issued at the conclusion of the Meeting were the Report to CHOGM of the Chairperson of the Commonwealth Ministerial Group on Small States, and the Report of the Committee of the Whole on Commonwealth Functional Co-operation. Both of these were endorsed by Heads of Government at CHOGM. They will be available on the websites shortly.