Archivo etiqueta «Commonwealth»
By Malcolm Fraser, three times Prime Minister of Australia (Project Syndicate, 02/11/11):
Last weekend, representatives of 54 countries, mostly heads of government, attended the bi-annual Commonwealth Meeting. High on the agenda was a report by the Eminent Persons Group (EPG), established to reinvigorate the Commonwealth, strengthen its Secretariat, and transform its approach to human rights. The group included former Australian High Court Justice Michael Kirby, former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, former Malay Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and Mozamibique’s former first lady (and wife of Nelson Mandela) Graça Machel, among others. The group’s recommendations were unanimous.
But … Seguir leyendo
By Kamalesh Sharma, the Commonwealth secretary general (THE GUARDIAN, 26/10/10):
According to your report, our organisation’s “silence” over human rights abuses by our member states speaks volumes about where we stand on this key issue (Commonwealth ‘has abandoned’ human rights role, 9 October).
It states “the secretary general … will not speak out against abuses by any of the 54 member states”. The article continues that this represents a reversal of the Commonwealth’s tradition of speaking out over gross abuses.
All 54 nations of the Commonwealth, accounting for a quarter of the world’s countries and a third … Seguir leyendo
By Danny Sriskandarajah, director of the Royal Commonwealth Society. From 2004-2008 he was at the Institute for Public Policy Research (THE GUARDIAN, 10/10/10):
The allegations in Saturday’s Guardian that the Commonwealth secretariat has abandoned its commitment to defend human rights could not have come at a worse time. Bad press around the Delhi games had already led to questions about what the Commonwealth is for these days, and this news potentially undermines the very thing that sets the association apart.
If the Commonwealth is to survive in the 21st century, it needs to show that it stands for something … Seguir leyendo
By Blessing-Miles Tendi, a researcher and freelance writer on contemporary Zimbabwean politics (THE GUARDIAN, 27/11/09):
Indications ahead of the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Trinidad are that Zimbabwe will be offered readmission to the Commonwealth in 2011. In return for readmission Zimbabwe will be required to implement democratic and economic reforms. Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth in 2002 on the grounds that Robert Mugabe had been fraudulently re-elected in the country’s presidential election. Zimbabwe quit the Commonwealth a year later, after the body refused to lift the country’s suspension. The lifting of Zimbabwe’s suspension had been supported … Seguir leyendo
By Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, director of the Royal Commonwealth Society (THE GUARDIAN, 09/03/09):
Today is Commonwealth Day. To mark it, the Queen will join 2,000 others at Westminster Abbey for the UK’s largest multifaith observance. Since emerging from the colonial era as a voluntary grouping of independent nations 60 years ago, the modern Commonwealth has done a great deal to promote democracy, international understanding and the interests of vulnerable states. Yet, at least in the UK, if more is not done to raise its visibility and relevance the Commonwealth risks disappearing from the national consciousness.
In 1969, a Gallup poll … Seguir leyendo
By Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth secretary general (THE GUARDIAN, 18/12/06):
Education ministers from across the Commonwealth gathered in Cape Town last week to discuss, with the world’s leading experts, how to change the lives of the millions of children denied schooling. Conspicuous by its absence from this important conference was Fiji. The Pacific island nation was suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth on December 8, following a military coup, the country’s fourth in 20 years. The nine countries currently in the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group agreed that it could no longer have a voice in our 53-nation family, … Seguir leyendo