Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2011
Encyclopedia
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2011, commonly known as CHOGM 2011, was the twenty-second Meeting
of the Heads of Government
of the Commonwealth of Nations
. Held in Perth
, Australia
, between 28 - 30 October, 2011 and hosted by the Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
.
, Western Australia
, hosted the conference, the first time the city hosted the event and the first time the event has been held in Australia since the 2002 meeting
at Coolum
, Queensland
. Kings Park
served as the leaders' retreat.
fighter jets of the Royal Australian Air Force
also patrolled the skies.
, Queen Elizabeth II, incorporated the CHOGM Official Opening into her official visit to Australia
, accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
. The tour lasted from 19 October to 29 October and included visits to Canberra
, Brisbane
, Melbourne
and Perth
. Guy Sebastian
headlined the Official Opening in Perth, performing "Agents of Change," a song written by him especially for the event. In attendance at the ceremony were Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Julia Gillard
, the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth
Kamalesh Sharma
and many heads of government or heads of state from the 53 Commonwealth states.
British Prime Minister David Cameron
arrived late for the summit as he was attending an EU summit on financial bailouts.
announced his proposals
to reform the rules governing the royal succession. Also discussed were topics on how the Commonwealth should celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
The summit considered a report by an Eminent Persons Group panel, appointed at the last CHOGM. The panel suggested the Commonwealth's relevance was lost and was further decaying due the the lack of a mechanism to censure member countries when they violated human rights or democratic norms. The panel also made 106 "urgent" recommendations including the adoption of a Charter of the Commonwealth, the creation of a new commissioner on the rule of law, democracy and human rights to track persistent human rights abuses and allegations of political repression by Commonwealth member states, recommendations for the repeal of laws against homosexuality
in 41 Commonwealth states and a ban on "forced marriage
."
prime ministers agreed to British Prime Minister David Cameron's proposal that the rules for the royal succession
be reformed. The reforms need to be approved by parliaments of all 16 realms. New Zealand
will chair a working group to consider the best way of accomplishing this reform in all the countries concerned.
The summit failed to reach an agreement to endorse or even publish the Eminent Persons Group
report; the United Kingdom
, Australia and Canada
urged the publication of the report but were opposed by India, Nigeria
, Sri Lanka
, South Africa
and Namibia
. The EPG had been commissioned at the 2009 CHOGM to make proposals for modernisation and reforms. 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 decried as a "disgrace" by former British Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind
, a member of the EPG, who told a press conference: "The Commonwealth faces a very significant problem. It's not a problem of hostility or antagonism, it's more of a problem of indifference. Its purpose is being questioned, its relevance is being questioned and part of that is because its commitment to enforce the values for which it stands is becoming ambiguous in the eyes of many member states. The Commonwealth is not a private club of the governments or the secretariat. It belongs to the people of the Commonwealth."
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
, former prime minister of Malaysia and chair of the EPG, warned "this CHOGM is expected to deliver meaningful reforms of the Commonwealth. If this CHOGM does not deliver such reforms, it is our duty to sound the caution to you that this CHOGM will be remembered not as the triumph it should be, but as a failure."
On the summit's final day it was agreed to develop a charter of values for the Commonwealth as "one clear, powerful statement" without any agreement about enforcement. Two-thirds of the EPG's 106 recommendations were referred to study groups, an act described by one EPG member as having them "kicked into the long grass." There was, however, still no agreement to create the recommended position of human rights commissioner, instead a ministerial management group was empowered with enforcement. The summit chair, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, hailed the decision to develop the charter of values and adopt new rules for the ministerial management body as "major decisions" and "significant reforms."
n Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
skipped the summit in protest against Australia's refusal to sell India uranium as it had not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, instead the ceremonial Vice President Hamid Ansari led the Indian delegation. Though reports suggested that the Commonwealth Secretariat had refused to grant Ansari head of government status, the same status and attendant protocol honours Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said that: "In our system, the vice president holds a position of great importance. He is second in the warrant of precedence;" India also claimed that Singh's calendar was full,(25 Octover 2011). Indian Prime Minister not to attend Commonwealth summit in Australia. but the Commonwealth was not being snubbed as it was still relevant. Australia later denied that Singh's pull out from the summit was over a refusal to sell uranium.(29 October 2011). Manmohan Singh Pullout ‘nothing to do with uranium’. e News.
Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper
walked out of the summit during its last day when Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa
was invited to speak. He also had threatened to boycott the 2013 CHOGM summit, scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka, if allegations of human rights abuses against the country's Tamil
minority were not investigated.
In response to a suggestion by British Prime Minister Cameron that the United Kingdom
would cut off aid to any country that failed to recognise LGBT rights, President of Ghana
John Atta Mills pledged to never support or initiate any attempt to legalise homosexuality in his country and decried attempts by one country to dictate the societal norms of another state.
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, , is a biennial summit meeting of the heads of government from all Commonwealth nations. Every two years the meeting is held in a different member state, and is chaired by that nation's respective Prime Minister or President, who becomes the...
of the Heads of Government
Commonwealth Heads of Government
The leaders of the nations with membership in the Commonwealth of Nations are collectively known as the Commonwealth Heads of Government. They are invited to attend Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings every two years, with most countries being represented by either their Head of Government...
of the Commonwealth of Nations
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
. Held in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, between 28 - 30 October, 2011 and hosted by the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
.
Venue
PerthPerth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, hosted the conference, the first time the city hosted the event and the first time the event has been held in Australia since the 2002 meeting
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2002
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2002 was the seventeenth Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations. It was held in Coolum, Australia, between 2 March and 5 March 2002, and hosted by Prime Minister John Howard....
at Coolum
Coolum Beach, Queensland
Coolum Beach is a beachside town on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia and is also the beach around which the town is based. Coolum hosted the 2003 CHOGM after it was moved from Brisbane....
, Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. Kings Park
Kings Park, Western Australia
Kings Park is a park located on the western edge of Perth, Western Australia central business district. The park is a mixture of grassed parkland, botanical gardens and natural bushland on Mount Eliza with two thirds of the grounds conserved as native bushland. With panoramic views of the Swan...
served as the leaders' retreat.
Security
A heavy security presence was placed in Perth with many parts of the city being declared "security areas" as delegated with newly enumerated authority to clamp down on protests. In the Perth Central Business District, where the Queen was due to open the summit, nearly every street corner had a police presence. F/A-18 HornetF/A-18 Hornet
The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to dogfight and attack ground targets . Designed by McDonnell Douglas and Northrop, the F/A-18 was derived from the latter's YF-17 in the 1970s for use by the United States Navy and...
fighter jets of the Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
also patrolled the skies.
Opening session
The Head of the CommonwealthHead of the Commonwealth
The Head of the Commonwealth heads the Commonwealth of Nations, an intergovernmental organisation which currently comprises 54 sovereign states. The position is currently occupied by the individual who serves as monarch of each of the Commonwealth realms, but has no day-to-day involvement in the...
, Queen Elizabeth II, incorporated the CHOGM Official Opening into her official visit to Australia
Royal visits to Australia
Since 1867, there have been over fifty visits by a member of the Royal Family to Australia, though only six of those came before 1954. Elizabeth II is the only reigning monarch of Australia to have set foot on Australian soil; she first did so on 3 February 1954...
, accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
. The tour lasted from 19 October to 29 October and included visits to Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
. Guy Sebastian
Guy Sebastian
Guy Theodore Sebastian is an Australian pop, R&B, and soul singer-songwriter who was the first winner of Australian Idol in 2003. He is currently a judge on the Australian version of The X Factor. Sebastian has released six top ten platinum/multi platinum albums, including a number-one and...
headlined the Official Opening in Perth, performing "Agents of Change," a song written by him especially for the event. In attendance at the ceremony were Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
, the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
Kamalesh Sharma
Kamalesh Sharma
H.E Kamalesh Sharma is the current Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations from 2008, having previously served as the High Commissioner for India in London....
and many heads of government or heads of state from the 53 Commonwealth states.
British Prime Minister David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
arrived late for the summit as he was attending an EU summit on financial bailouts.
Discussions
British Prime Minister David CameronDavid Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
announced his proposals
2011 proposals to change the rules of royal succession in the Commonwealth realms
On 28 October 2011, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia, it was announced that British Prime Minister David Cameron's proposed changes to the royal succession laws in the 16 Commonwealth realms had received unanimous support of the other realms' prime ministers...
to reform the rules governing the royal succession. Also discussed were topics on how the Commonwealth should celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
The summit considered a report by an Eminent Persons Group panel, appointed at the last CHOGM. The panel suggested the Commonwealth's relevance was lost and was further decaying due the the lack of a mechanism to censure member countries when they violated human rights or democratic norms. The panel also made 106 "urgent" recommendations including the adoption of a Charter of the Commonwealth, the creation of a new commissioner on the rule of law, democracy and human rights to track persistent human rights abuses and allegations of political repression by Commonwealth member states, recommendations for the repeal of laws against homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
in 41 Commonwealth states and a ban on "forced marriage
Forced marriage
Forced marriage is a term used to describe a marriage in which one or both of the parties is married without his or her consent or against his or her will...
."
Outcome
The other Commonwealth realmCommonwealth Realm
A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state within the Commonwealth of Nations that has Elizabeth II as its monarch and head of state. The sixteen current realms have a combined land area of 18.8 million km² , and a population of 134 million, of which all, except about two million, live in the six...
prime ministers agreed to British Prime Minister David Cameron's proposal that the rules for the royal succession
Succession to the British Throne
Succession to the British throne is governed both by common law and statute. Under common law the crown is currently passed on by male-preference primogeniture. In other words, succession passes first to an individual's sons, in order of birth, and subsequently to daughters, again in order of birth....
be reformed. The reforms need to be approved by parliaments of all 16 realms. New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
will chair a working group to consider the best way of accomplishing this reform in all the countries concerned.
The summit failed to reach an agreement to endorse or even publish the Eminent Persons Group
Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group
Several Eminent Persons Groups, abbreviated to EPG, have been founded by Commonwealth of Nations.An EPG was established at the 1985 CHOGM to investigate apartheid in South Africa, and reported ahead of the special 1986 CHOGM: recommending economic sanctions against South Africa.The latest was...
report; the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Australia and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
urged the publication of the report but were opposed by India, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
. The EPG had been commissioned at the 2009 CHOGM to make proposals for modernisation and reforms. 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 decried as a "disgrace" by former British Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind
Malcolm Rifkind
Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind KCMG QC MP is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Kensington. He served in various roles as a cabinet minister under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Secretary of State for Scotland , Defence Secretary and...
, a member of the EPG, who told a press conference: "The Commonwealth faces a very significant problem. It's not a problem of hostility or antagonism, it's more of a problem of indifference. Its purpose is being questioned, its relevance is being questioned and part of that is because its commitment to enforce the values for which it stands is becoming ambiguous in the eyes of many member states. The Commonwealth is not a private club of the governments or the secretariat. It belongs to the people of the Commonwealth."
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Tun Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi is a Malaysian politician who served as Prime Minister from 2003 to 2009. He was also the President of the United Malays National Organisation , the largest political party in Malaysia, and led the governing Barisan Nasional parliamentary coalition...
, former prime minister of Malaysia and chair of the EPG, warned "this CHOGM is expected to deliver meaningful reforms of the Commonwealth. If this CHOGM does not deliver such reforms, it is our duty to sound the caution to you that this CHOGM will be remembered not as the triumph it should be, but as a failure."
On the summit's final day it was agreed to develop a charter of values for the Commonwealth as "one clear, powerful statement" without any agreement about enforcement. Two-thirds of the EPG's 106 recommendations were referred to study groups, an act described by one EPG member as having them "kicked into the long grass." There was, however, still no agreement to create the recommended position of human rights commissioner, instead a ministerial management group was empowered with enforcement. The summit chair, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, hailed the decision to develop the charter of values and adopt new rules for the ministerial management body as "major decisions" and "significant reforms."
Controversies
IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
skipped the summit in protest against Australia's refusal to sell India uranium as it had not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, instead the ceremonial Vice President Hamid Ansari led the Indian delegation. Though reports suggested that the Commonwealth Secretariat had refused to grant Ansari head of government status, the same status and attendant protocol honours Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said that: "In our system, the vice president holds a position of great importance. He is second in the warrant of precedence;" India also claimed that Singh's calendar was full,(25 Octover 2011). Indian Prime Minister not to attend Commonwealth summit in Australia. but the Commonwealth was not being snubbed as it was still relevant. Australia later denied that Singh's pull out from the summit was over a refusal to sell uranium.(29 October 2011). Manmohan Singh Pullout ‘nothing to do with uranium’. e News.
Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
walked out of the summit during its last day when Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa
Mahinda Rajapaksa
Percy Mahendra "Mahinda" Rajapaksa ; ; born November 18, 1945) is the 6th and current President of Sri Lanka and Commander in Chief of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. A lawyer by profession, Rajapaksa was first elected to the Parliament of Sri Lanka in 1970, and served as prime minister from April 6,...
was invited to speak. He also had threatened to boycott the 2013 CHOGM summit, scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka, if allegations of human rights abuses against the country's Tamil
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
minority were not investigated.
In response to a suggestion by British Prime Minister Cameron that the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
would cut off aid to any country that failed to recognise LGBT rights, President of Ghana
President of Ghana
The President of Ghana is the elected head of state and head of government of Ghana. Officially styled President of the Republic of Ghana and Commander-in-Chief of the Ghanaian Armed Forces. The current President of Ghana is Prof. John Atta Mills, who took office in January...
John Atta Mills pledged to never support or initiate any attempt to legalise homosexuality in his country and decried attempts by one country to dictate the societal norms of another state.