Commonwealth of Nations

"[12] As long ago as 18 January 1884[13] Lord Rosebery, while visiting Adelaide, South Australia, had described the changing British Empire, as some of its colonies became more independent, as a "Commonwealth of Nations".A specific proposal was presented by Jan Smuts in 1917 when he coined the term "the British Commonwealth of Nations" and envisioned the "future constitutional relations and readjustments in essence"[17] at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, attended by delegates from the Dominions as well as the United Kingdom.The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan was established for pilots from across the Empire and Dominions, created by the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.[41][42][43][44] At a time when Germany and France, together with Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, were planning what later became the European Union, and newly independent African countries were joining the Commonwealth, new ideas were floated to prevent the United Kingdom from becoming isolated in economic affairs.In 1956 and 1957, the British government, under Prime Minister Anthony Eden, considered a "Plan G" to create a European free trade zone whilst also protecting the favoured status of the Commonwealth.[59] The position is symbolic, representing the free association of independent members,[57] the majority of which (36) are republics, and five have monarchs of different royal houses (Brunei, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malaysia and Tonga).It also provides technical assistance to help governments in the social and economic development of their countries and in support of the Commonwealth's fundamental political values.The first secretary-general was Arnold Smith of Canada (1965–1975), followed by Sir Shridath Ramphal of Guyana (1975–1990), Chief Emeka Anyaoku of Nigeria (1990–1999), and Don McKinnon of New Zealand (2000–2008).For example, in Australia, for the purpose of considering certain constitutional and legal provisions in the High Court case of Sue v Hill, the United Kingdom was held to be a "foreign power".The 1949 London Declaration ended this, allowing republican and indigenous monarchic members on the condition that they recognised King George VI as "Head of the Commonwealth".The 14 points of the 1971 Singapore Declaration dedicated all members to the principles of world peace, liberty, human rights, equality, and free trade.In most cases, this is due to being a former colony of the United Kingdom, but some have links to other countries, either exclusively or more directly (e.g., Bangladesh to Pakistan, Samoa to New Zealand, Papua New Guinea to Australia, and Singapore to Malaysia).This would tarnish the reputation of the Commonwealth and confirm the opinion of many people and civic organisations that the leaders of its governments do not really care for democracy and human rights, and that its periodic, solemn declarations are merely hot air.[114] Suspensions are agreed by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), which meets regularly to address potential breaches of the Harare Declaration.[119] Zimbabwe was suspended in 2002 over concerns regarding the electoral and land reform policies of Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government,[120] before it withdrew from the organisation in 2003.[129] Most recently, during 2013 and 2014, international pressure mounted to suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth, citing grave human rights violations by the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa."[145] The Commonwealth website lists its areas of work as: democracy, economics, education, gender, governance, human rights, law, small states, sport, sustainability, and youth.[146] In October 2010, a leaked memo from the Secretary General instructing staff not to speak out on human rights was published, leading to accusations that the Commonwealth was not being vocal enough on its core values.[149][150] The failure to release the report, or accept its recommendations for reforms in the area of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, was described as a "disgrace" by former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind, a member of the EPG, who told a press conference: "The Commonwealth faces a very significant problem.[148] The result of the effort was that a new Charter of the Commonwealth was signed by Queen Elizabeth II on 11 March 2013 at Marlborough House, which opposes "all forms of discrimination, whether rooted in gender, race, colour, creed, political belief or other grounds".The commercial rationale was gradually less attractive to the Commonwealth; however, access to the growing London capital market remained an important advantage to the newly independent nations.Historian Ben Pimlott argues that joining Europe "constituted the most decisive step yet in the progress of severance of familial ties between the United Kingdom and its former Empire...It was feared that British entry into the Common Market was bound to mean abolition, or at least scaling down, of preferential tariff arrangements for Australians goods.[175][176] Commonwealth countries share many links outside government, with over a hundred non-governmental organisations, notably for sport, culture, education, law, and charity claiming to operate on a Commonwealth-wide basis.Its mandate is to strengthen civil society in the achievement of Commonwealth priorities: democracy and good governance, respect for human rights and gender equality, poverty eradication, people-centred and sustainable development, and to promote arts and culture.[184] The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is an intergovernmental organisation created by the heads of government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources and technologies.[198] The Commonwealth Games alongside the youth version, a quadrennial multi-sports event held in the middle year of an Olympic cycle is the most visible demonstration of these sporting ties.[205] Caribbean writer Jean Rhys's writing career began as early as 1928, though her most famous work, Wide Sargasso Sea, was not published until 1966.[207] Many other Commonwealth writers have achieved an international reputation for works in English, including Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, and playwright Wole Soyinka.[209] Whilst, due to their shared constitutional histories, most countries in the Commonwealth have outwardly similar legal and political systems, several of them – including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Fiji, Gambia, Grenada, Nigeria, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Uganda – have experienced one-party rule, civilian or military dictatorships or destructive civil wars, and many still suffer from rampant corruption and poor governance despite the fact that the Commonwealth requires its members to be functioning democracies that respect human rights and the rule of law.