Political leaders from all 54 member states of the Commonwealth of Nations gathered in Rwanda’s capital city of Kigali in late June 2022 for the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), having last met in London in April 2018. It must be noted that the heads of state of 25 Commonwealth countries, including Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, and South Africa, stayed away and were represented instead by ministers and diplomats. The Prince of Wales, officiating for Queen Elizabeth II, addressed the gathering at the official opening on 24 June, which followed four days of preparatory ministerial meetings, Commonwealth youth, women’s, people’s and business forums, and assorted side events covering such pressing issues as access to justice, climate change, fashion, violent extremism, human rights, mental health, tropical diseases, and violence against women and girls. The Kigali summit also coincided with the early stages of the British government’s nascent Rwanda plan for intending asylum seekers, giving the small east African nation an unparalled share of media coverage in Britain.
The Commonwealth of Nations describes itself as “a voluntary association of independent and equal sovereign states”, brought together in a spirit of consultation and cooperation by the shared “values and goals” of democracy, human rights, good governance, and the rule of law. The choice of the word “goals” seems apposite, as many member nations seem a long way from implementing the relevant core principles of the 16 Articles of the Commonwealth Charter, agreed by and signed up to by all member states on 14 December 2012.
The formal origins of the “British Commonwealth of Nations” are to be found in the Report of the Inter-Imperial Relations Committee, chaired by Arthur Balfour (Lord President of the Council), which was unanimously approved by the fifth Imperial Conference in London on 15 November 1926. The original members of what came to be known as the “Old Commonwealth” were the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Irish Free State, the Dominion of New Zealand, Newfoundland, the Union of South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The autonomy and legislative independence of Britain’s self-governing Dominions subsequently received legal sanction in the Statute of Westminster in December 1931.
A newer version of the Commonwealth was agreed upon at a Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ meeting in London in April 1949, when the seeds of a “New Commonwealth” were sown. King George VI became Head of the Commonwealth, which lost its “British” prefix, and also titular head of state of a number of member states (Commonwealth Realms), currently numbering 14 (in addition to the UK), where the sovereign is represented by a governor-general. The 54 independent member states, including republics and monarchies, are spread across Africa (19), Asia (8), the Caribbean and Americas (13), Europe (3), and the Pacific (11) and include 32 small states, many of which are island nations, with populations of 1.5 million or under. The Commonwealth sees itself as a voice for, and a champion of the developmental needs of, these smaller nations. India, with 1.4 billion citizens, accounts for over half of the total population of the Commonwealth of 2.5 billion. Mozambique became the first country without previous constitutional links with Britain to join in 1995, followed by Rwanda in 2009, and most recently by Gabon and Togo on 24 June 2022. Despite their differing political structures, certain basic standards are expected of members. Recalcitrant nations can be punished, if felt appropriate, by the imposition of financial and commercial sanctions and ultimately even suspension from the Commonwealth, as happened in response to major lapses in democracy in Nigeria, Pakistan, Fiji, and Zimbabwe.
Almost all Commonwealth members were once part of the British Empire, bonded by their shared use of the English language, just as the members of La Francophonie share a common language in French. Many have adopted a Westminster-style parliamentary system, with elected legislatures and multi-party elections, and have developed educational, commercial, and legal systems that are closely modelled on British practice. Not all newly independent countries, however, opted to join the Commonwealth during the period of decolonisation. Burma (Myanmar), Aden (part of Republic of Yemen), British Somaliland (part of Somalia), and the Gulf States all parted company with Britain to go their own way.
Far from thriving as a collaborative post-colonial project, rising immigration from the New Commonwealth threatened Britain’s national self-interests and helped distance its people from the ambitions of the wider community of Commonwealth nations. The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 was followed by further restrictive legislation in 1968 and 1971, particularly to curb the influx of Asian refugees from Kenya in 1968 and from Uganda in 1972. Britain’s membership of the EEC from 1973 onwards was seen by some as indicating a shift away from the Commonwealth in favour of Europe, although Brexit has since revived interest in the Commonwealth as part of a new ‘Global Britain’ strategy in which it is considered a major alternative market for British goods and services. There is clearly potential for growth in economic activity, as the Commonwealth only accounted for 9.1 per cent of total trade with UK in 2019.
The main institutions of the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth Secretariat, established in 1965, and the Commonwealth Foundation, set up as a charitable trust in 1966, are inter-governmental organisations, headquartered at Grade I listed Marlborough House on London’s Pall Mall. The Secretary-General acts as the chief executive of the Commonwealth, which is headed by the Queen. The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation is the key vehicle whereby the Secretariat provides technical assistance to members. The Commonwealth network comprises more than eighty accredited professional or civil society organisations, working in education, health, literacy, science and technology, urban planning and other specialist areas relevant to the developmental needs of member states.
The Commonwealth’s strengths lie in its stated commitments to peace, the rule of law, human rights, universal education, healthcare, gender equality, climate change action, and other worthy causes. But its laudable rhetoric has frequently failed to translate into meaningful action. This is partly because it lacks teeth, not being a political alliance in the strict sense of the word, and is best described as a diverse “family of nations”, bound by their past ties to a colonial master rather than by a shared worldview. In keeping with the loose affiliations of its members, who have no legal obligations to the Commonwealth, its institutions are unable to assert a global influence, rendering them somewhat ineffectual on the world stage. The Commonwealth is also not a trading bloc, despite a commitment to free trade, and there is considerable economic inequality between its members. Furthermore, political instability is a feature of many Commonwealth nations, some of which cannot be considered true democracies. Within Britain, there seems remarkably little public interest in Commonwealth issues, which rarely feature in political debate and during election campaigns. Annual Commonwealth Day celebrations, on the second Monday in March, also appear not to have captured the nation’s attentions.
During a post-colonial phase in which claims for reparations for slavery and other past injustices are rising, the continued role of the Commonwealth itself has come under scrutiny. Even as Prince Charles, speaking in Kigali, confirmed that “each member’s constitutional arrangement, as republic or monarchy, is purely a matter for each member country to decide”, the precise role of the Commonwealth on the world stage, despite all its declared good intentions, demands clarification.
Ashis Banerjee