Week 1 - The Effectiveness of the CHOGM Declarations Date: Mar 9, 2009 10:04:09 AM PDT Author: Brooke The CHOGM Declarations and Communiqués attempt to address some of the problems of the times and to ensure that the Commonwealth remains relevant by proposing suitable action. Do you believe the most problematic issues have been addressed and have the actions proposed been meaningful? Brooke Prater WBI Parliamentary Strengthening Program parliamentarystrengthening@gmail.com

The Effectiveness of the CHOGM Declarations Date: Mar 10, 2009 9:05:22 AM PDT Author: Moderator There have been several important CHOGM Declarations (that is, declarations from Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings) which are referred to in Unit 1 of the Module. They go across many key areas of good governance and human endeavour. One of those with the widest import, Harare 1991, reaffirmed Commonwealth principles set down 20 years earlier and then went on to make clear statements about the position of women, the promotion of democracy and problems of sustainable development. Through the 1995 Millbrook Declaration, Heads of Government set up a Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to recommend discipline regarding recalcitrant members who did not uphold the principles enunciated in Harare. It is interesting that the UK government is currently being criticized in certain quarters for not taking seriously a recent CMAG meeting – it was held in London a few days ago and most governments sent their foreign ministers but the UK itself was represented at a much lower level than expected. At their last meeting in Malta, Heads made a statement about the digital divide and how the Commonwealth should use the new technologies to create a network for development. You can see all these and other statements in full on the Commonwealth Secretariat website www.thecommonwealth.org – incidentally as yesterday (9 March) was Commonwealth Day, there’s a lot of topical information currently highlighted on this excellent site. How many of these are relevant to the countries of participants and have you seen the results of these? Should Heads have also spoken about other matters which you see as more relevant?

Week 1 - The Effectiveness of the CHOGM Declarations Date: Mar 10, 2009 11:17:44 PM PDT Author: ekky It is true that the CHOGM declarations and communiques attempt to address some of the problems of the times and to ensure that the commonwealth remains relevant by proposing suitable actions but am of the view that actions proposed are rather theoratical and not well implemented or monitored. I will answer this question using CHOGM 2007 meeting held in Kampala. This meeting was held in Uganda from 23rd to 25th November 2007, it was attended by 48 countries. Of these 36 were represented by their heads of state. During the meeting heads of Government reiterated their commitment to the commonwealt fundamental political values of tolerance;respect;international peace and security; democracy; good governance; human rights;gender equality;rule of law;the independence of the judiciary;a balance of power between the executive, legislature and judiciary inter alia. They also discussed combating corruption, human trafficking, terrorism; human rights;trade;world economic situation;debt relief; climate change;education; health; HIV/AIDs; Gender, Youth among the others. You will agree with me that the issues discussed were topical and i do not have problems with that, am however of the view that solutions to these problems are theoratical and mechanisms to implement and monitor them are lacking. CHOGM to me is totally an executive affair. The other arms of government are left out at all levels planning, implementation and monitoring. Even within the executive it is left to a few ministries or individuals. In Uganda there is no clear mechanism of discussing chogm undertakings with MPs. In my view it should be through the committee of Foreign Affairs. I know that some of these undertakings are domesticated into policies and bills but this is not explicit and it greatly undermines the ability of Parliament. I know there was a select committee created to handle Chogm Affairs during the 2007 meeting but this committee was looking at financial expenditures basically. Am not even sure if recommendations of their report were implementated at all. Despite the fact that a number of ministerial meetings now include provision for dialogue with civil society, the civil society is not fully informed about these declarations and communiques. It is disheartening to note that in Uganda people associate CHOGM with putting up hotels, roads, beautifying the city by collecting rubbish, planting trees not communiques and declarations. Actually hadn't i participated in the last CHOGM I could have been eually ignorant. Before i conclude i would like to draw your attention to the issue of indicators in measuring the success of CHOGM declarations and communiques. I know MDGs have some indicators for measuring progress,am also aware of the African Peer Review Mechanism for NEPAD what do we have for the commonwealth. I need to be informed. In conclusion CHOGM Declarations and Communiques attempt to address topical issues like Corruption, HIV/AIDS, Gender, Terrorism but actions proposed to address these issues are rather theoratical and never fully implemented and monitored at national levels.

The Effectiveness of the CHOGM Declarations Date: Mar 12, 2009 12:07:27 AM PDT Author: karoli Commonwealth declarations are good political statements that provide members of the Commonwealth with the political positions of the leadership. Knowing that commonwealth membership is voluntary and one can opt out just like Zimbabwe opted out, the declaration of leadership have not much significant effect on the key players. The Coomonwealth declarations would be more effective if there was a binding agreement by all members to address an issue. My view is that alot needs to be done to make these declarations effective and much as the developing countries continue to look to the developed ones for aid instead of attracting domestic and foreign investment to develop their economies and improve the lives of their peoples then declarations alone will not help the members of the commonwealth

The Effectiveness of the CHOGM Declarations Date: Mar 12, 2009 3:37:41 AM PDT Author: Moderator The inputs we have above are in my view spot on in highlighting the difficulties most people (and that includes me) have in relating to the Commonwealth and what it does. Unless one follows what is happening very closely – and that appears very difficult to do unless one is a member of some team involved in Commonwealth matters – it is almost impossible to know adequately what is happening. The Commonwealth has never been very good at publicising itself: websites like that of the Commonwealth Secretariat have been vastly improved recently but still the readership is very small by global standards. One sees too little publicity given to Commonwealth matters in the daily newspapers even though they receive information from a variety of Commonwealth sources. It is difficult to blame the newspapers because what the Commonwealth does is most often not the material that makes headlines. As we noted earlier, much of the Commonwealth’s work is economically and satisfactorily done in small niche areas and one does not find such work lending itself to publicity. Also of course the Commonwealth’s financing is of a very small order compared with, say, UN agencies and this again does not make for creating headlines. A useful exercise is to compare the cost of one day’s expenses of a UN Monitoring Group in a trouble spot with the annual expenditure of the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation (CFTC): do try this sometime. There are some very good points made by participants in the discussion on CHOGM declarations. For instance cannot the Commonwealth make the declarations binding on their members? Of course Heads of Government have put their signatures to the declarations but we come up here against the concept of the Commonwealth as a free association where each country makes its own decisions on what they do about implementing them – it is only on matters of the gravest import such as adherence to the basics of democracy or the repudiation of terrorism that the Commonwealth finds itself enforcing the decisions of Heads of Government. So enforcement does happen but only in limited tightly worked out situations. What about the monitoring of work on the declarations? Here the situation is more promising. The Head of the last host government acts as a chair of CHOGM (the official name is Chairperson-in-Office) for the next two years and follows up with the help of the Commonwealth Secretariat on what is happening. Primarily the burden is cast on the Secretariat to keep things moving by initiating projects and surveys and whatever is possible, of course within its budget. This question could not have been raised at a more appropriate time as the current Chairperson-in-Office, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, is in London this week doing just this – do see the Commonwealth Secretariat website. Have indicators been created parallel to those of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to follow up on CHOGM declarations? My answer is a qualified ‘yes’. In many areas the Commonwealth has set goals and indicators of success – gender concerns and the promotion of greater representation of women in parliaments is one of them - and, of course, rather than create duplicate mechanisms, the Commonwealth has put itself behind the implementation of the MDGs. Verdict? There’s a lot more to be done and we all have to participate in doing it. The internet will hopefully be a major contributor to better and more rapid access to, and understanding of, what the Commonwealth is doing and for greater involvement of ordinary people in bringing their concerns to the attention of the Heads. This last point is what the Malta Declaration is about so keep eyes open for results from that.

The Effectiveness of CHOGM Declarations Date: Mar 12, 2009 12:03:06 PM PDT Author: Big Ben The idea to start a Commonwealth organization is obviously laudable. There is no gainsaying that coming together will surely aid the countries in the Commonwealth to achieve greater things. The declarations by CHOGM is also something to be applauded. The problem is the implementation of the declarations. CHOGM was held in Abuja in 2003 from which came the Aso Rock Commonwealth Declaration on Development and Democracy. That Declaration was to further affirm the principles outlined in those before it i.e The Harare Commonwealth Declaration, Commonwealth (Latimer House) Principles on the Three Branches of Government, Coolum Declaration, Fancourt Commonwealth Declaration on Globalisation and People-Centred Development, Declaration of Commonwealth Principles 1971 etc are all geared towards one thing: a better life for people in Commonwealth countries through good governance. What we see in Commonwealth countries today is a far cry from these. There is abject poverty and suffering especially in developing countries as a result bad leadership and refusal to adhere to the tenets of democracy and good governance. In a nutshell, CHOGM Declarations are mere executive statements rather than realistic action plans. What is responsible for this? Every two years, Heads of Government from Commonwealth Countries meet and discuss great ideas. After the jamboree, little or nothing is done to implement the recommendations contained in the Declarations. There are no follow-up mechanisms in place to ensure implementation. That is why a country like Zimbabwe, where a major Declaration was made is still toying with the principles of true democracy. Furthermore, the fact that the Commonwealth does not have a Constitution is another major snag in the wheel of its progress. I think there should be a binding principle that will instill in governments, the need to abide by resolutions reached at CHOGMs. Finally, I want to support Ekky that there should be indicators for measuring the performance of individual countries and the indicators must be realistic and known to citizens of the country.

Week 1 - The Effectiveness of the CHOGM Declarations Date: Mar 14, 2009 4:44:50 AM PDT Author: Tumu My view is that CHOGM Declarations touch on real issues. But the implementation of the declaration, publicity of those declaration, monitoring compliance and sanctioning members that do not comply is the biggest problem. For example, I think in 1991, one of the CHOGM declaration was that for every bill introduced in a legislature, it should be accompanied by a human rights compliance guarantee issued by the country's attorney general. My view is that this declaration was extremely important in the light of the fact laws have been enacted in most commonwealth countries which violate a host of rights of citizens. In fact, most of the declarations are really potent. But there is no organized body to hold the leaders of the commonwealth countries accountable on the basis of their declarations. In other words, to make them walk the talk.

The effectiveness of the CHOGM Drclarations Date: Mar 15, 2009 5:06:24 AM PDT Author: DOCTOR Reading through most CHOGM declarations, you will be impressed with their wordings and lofty ideals, but when you make a research on the level of application of these declarations,you will be shocked to discover that very few countries take them into consideration while formulating policies on governance,election,justice,human fights and democracy. CHOGM needs to step up its highlights oo its declarations by creating effective mmonitoring mechanisms which are quarterly and which laises with its secretariat for proper attention to be given and decisions also taken to salvage the dangers that loom in some of their member coutries as a result of bad governance,bpoorly organised election,non respect of human rights,injustices and the absence of democracy

Effectiveness of CHOGM Declarations Date: Mar 15, 2009 9:05:52 AM PDT Author: srm Effectiveness of CHOGM Declarations Over the years CHOGM has made numbers of Declarations to adopt itself to the changing needs of the world community. In 1965 it was a forum for consulting and co-operating in the common interests of their peoples and in the promotion of international understanding. Gradually through various declarations Commonweatlh has tried to achieve the demands of the time. Now the question is how effective is the Commonwealth? Without any Constitution and basic guidelines the effort do not seems to be concerted one. The website of the Commonwealth shows that it is involved in the following areas: Democracy, Education, Governance, Human Rights, Small States, Sustainability, MDGs, Economic, Gender, Health, Law, Sport, Youth, Funding, Election Observers etc. Commonwealth Secretariat is having 250 Staff and how effectively it is coordinating the above mentioned activity. The question is whether Commonwealth is expanding its work without any proper coordination and spreading its activity is showing its thin impact on the minds of the people. Whether keeping in view the financial constraint should Commonwealth focus on relevant issues which are common to the Commonwealth countries. Declarations made over years show that Commonwealth has no long term planning which may take into account the common problems faced by the Commonwealth fraternity and pursue solution over a period of ten/fifteen years. Another point is that in the CHOGM /CMAG etc. views of the executive is reflected and funds are provided by the Government, now Commonwealth interact with private sector, voluntary organizations and fund them. This is done over the globe. How the work and funding is monitored and how these funds are coming and going and how these are made accountable. I hope I will be guided to get the source of replies to the above queries. Last modified by srm on Mar 15 2009 9:16AM

Effectiveness of CHOGM Declarations Date: Mar 15, 2009 10:21:39 AM PDT Author: Moderator We have had some interesting views here on the progress which made in implementation of CHOGM declarations or the lack of it. Most strongly held is the view that there must be monitoring guidelines and indicators. Then comes the view that governments must be held to account if they do not implement them – we have discussed earlier some of the difficulties in taking this forward. A related suggestion is that it is the lack of a Commonwealth constitution that prevents action being taken against governments and that therefore a constitution should be put in place if the Commonwealth is to make real progress. Reference is made also to where data can be found on how the Commonwealth spends its finances and how it cooperates with the private sector, voluntary organizations and others. The ComSec website will give participants answers to the first question as you can trace the administrative and financial reports there including those relating to the Commonwealth und for Technical Cooperation. Regarding collaboration with the private sector, please see the website of the Commonwealth Business Council and regarding voluntary organizations, go to that of the Commonwealth Foundation. If you are not satisfied with what you find or cannot obtain exactly what you are looking for, please do not hesitate to write to the organization concerned and ask for fuller details. They will always respond to you – you can write in your private capacity as there is no requirement that such requests have to be made by official sources alone. I hope our discussion has clarified certain matters and helped to identify the weaknesses in the present system which need to be further addressed.