Is the Commonwealth no longer fit for purpose?

Days after the British Government’s attempt to deport migrants to Rwanda was aborted, leaders from fifty-four nations are heading voluntarily in the same direction next week. Kigali, the capital of the East African country and Paul Kagame, its controversial president, are playing host to this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, known as CHOGM and pronounced “choggum”.

The Commonwealth is an association of nations born out of the wind-down of the British Empire after the Second World War. The word “British” is no longer attached to its name, and while Elizabeth II has been its “Head” throughout her reign in the UK, her heir Prince Charles will take over, subject to the approval of all the member states. At this CHOGM, Boris Johnson will hand over to Kagame as “Leader-in-Office”.

The organisation has a small budget and a meagre secretariat based in Malborough House, off the Mall in London — a grace and favour gift from the Queen. It is a modest talking shop and network nominally committed to advancing democracy, human rights and economic development in its member states. The Commonwealth is not a major dispenser of international aid and has no leverage over its member nations other than suspension or expulsion. Only 9 per cent of UK trade is with Commonwealth nations.

Every two years, when CHOGMs occur, there is a flurry of commentary asking, “what’s the point of the Commonwealth?” or “How long can the Commonwealth go on?”. But on the evidence of the continued meetings and the growth in membership, a better question might be to ask “Why do Presidents and Prime Minsters keep turning up for CHOGM?”.

Past subjugation in the British Empire is no longer a criterion for membership. Rwanda is the newest member having joined in 2009: It was a Belgian Colony. Cameroon is another defector from La Francophonie, much to Paris’ annoyance. Mozambique was Portuguese. Turbulent nations that either walked or were kicked out — such as South Africa, Pakistan and Fiji — are now largely back in the fold. According to its critics, the urge to include has tarnished already battered democratic credentials. 

Having reported on a dozen CHOGMs over the years, I think the point is that the meetings are talking shops with relatively low stakes. In the friendly atmosphere, everyone knows sheepishly what they should be doing and may be coaxed, gently, in that direction. Often Britain, the fountainhead of the organisations, finds itself uncomfortably called to account.

There are not many other international organisations where such a disparate cross-section of the world debates in a constructive atmosphere. The Commonwealth membership represents two and a half billion people, the majority of who are under the age of 35.

It embraces 54 member states who meet on equal terms regardless of their size including the UK, a permanent member of the UN Security Council; Canada, a fellow member of the G7; Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Nigeria and seventeen other African Nations accounting for a majority of the continent’s GDP; India, the rising Asian Superpower and its regional rivals Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Cyprus, Malta (in the EU) and many of the Caribbean and Pacific islands. 

To the evident annoyance of successive British Prime Ministers, the UK is often its whipping boy. Actually, Margaret Thatcher seemed to rather relish “49 against 1” on the issue of apartheid South Africa but the tide of history was against her. Shortly after her departure from office in 1991, CHOGM in Zimbabwe was largely given over to Nelson Mandela and the “Harare Declaration”, asserting democracy, tolerance and human rights. That was when the host Robert Mugabe was still regarded as a good guy. As elsewhere in the world, some Commonwealth leaders have a tendency to hang on to power too long and evolve into autocrats. 

Inevitably Britain is often confronted by race issues. In 2018 Theresa May tried to avoid discussing the scandalous treatment of the Windrush Generation at a London CHOGM but it eventually gave her the cue to make a full public apology. 

Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Black Lives Matter sentiment has swept across the Caribbean from its US neighbour.  In Commonwealth member countries, this has found expression in challenging the legacy of slavery, particularly in those countries where the British Monarch is also Head of State. Barbados became a Republic last year and the Jamaican government has signalled its intention to follow suit. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge faced protests earlier this year on what has been called a “disastrous” and “tone deaf” tour of Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas. 

In her recent book, The Palace Papers, the journalist Tina Brown argues that the Royal Family should dial down and refocus their relationship with the Commonwealth but this is what they are already doing. Commonwealth membership is now down to just 15 “realms” with the Queen as Head of State, without affecting her status as the organisation’s head. A relaxed Prince Charles attended the ceremony when Barbados hauled down the flag. Buckingham Palace has long championed the rights of self-determination for those it presides over.

In Kigali next weekend the Prime Minister is likely to face many questions about his Rwanda deportation plans, reportedly considered “appalling” by Prince Charles who will be representing his mother at the opening of the summit. Controversially, Johnson’s Number Ten has also taken a stand against a further two-year extension to the term of the Commonwealth Secretary General, Patricia Scotland. 

Dominica-born Baroness Scotland was Attorney General in Gordon Brown’s government and a Labour peer and is the first woman to hold the job. But she had long been a subject of sleaze allegations by The Daily Mail and Guido Fawkes. The UK government is backing the Jamaican Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith. It seems unlikely that a consensus candidate will be agreed upon in private discussions in Rwanda. This CHOGM may be remembered for an acrimonious one-member nation — one vote contest to appoint the Secretary General.

The Commonwealth “problem nation” on this year’s agenda is likely to be Sri Lanka, where street protests are taking place as prices and the economy spiral out of control. Whether or not Sri Lanka participates, it will be a useful discussion since other countries are likely to follow, as the Ukraine conflict continues to impact global fuel and energy supply and costs.

For some, the Commonwealth really means the Commonwealth Games which are taking place this summer in Birmingham. For others, it is the exchange programmes of politicians and technologists. For others, it is election monitoring, or the early and longstanding focus the Commonwealth has maintained on the environment. 

Surveys show that British people have some of the lowest interest in the Commonwealth among member states. But it is one organisation where Global Britain still has tangible ties. For all the chuntering, the trip to Rwanda will be a useful experience for Boris Johnson and he already has a return ticket.