An attempt by a section of the Commonwealth to re-open the venue issue with regard to Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2013 was thwarted by Sri Lanka with the support of several member states.
Sri Lanka alleged that the move had been made at a meeting of the Committee of the Whole (COW) at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre (PCEC) to finalise the joint communiqué to be issued on Sunday (Oct 30) at the end of the three- day CHOGM 2011.
Commonwealth sources told The Island that the Canadian representative at the PCEC meeting had suggested that the communiqué shouldn’t reaffirm a previously taken decision to hold CHOGM 2013 in Colombo. The Canadian official had proposed that the communique should recall the decision on the Colombo venue, thereby paving the way for subsequent challenge.
Opposing the Canadian move, Senior Additional Secretary of the External Affairs Ministry, Kshenuka Senewirathne pointed out why the COW shouldn’t violate the long standing practice of endorsing the next venue at the end of the last CHOGM. Responding to a query, sources said that Nigeria had backed Sri Lanka’s stand. Guyana, the Maldives and Pakistan, too, threw their weight behind promoting the COW to decide against the Canadian suggestion.
Responding to a query by The Island, a spokesperson for the Indian High Commission in Colombo yesterday said that India, too, opposed the moves to re-open the venue issue. India also endorsed Sri Lanka’s opposition to the appointment of a Commonwealth Commissioner for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights.
The spokesperson quoted Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai as having told a media briefing on Tuesday (Oct. 25) that as the decision on the next two summits (2013 and 2015) had been taken in 2009, it was not a subject which needed to be reopened.
The Indian Foreign Secretary was responding to a media query on India’s position with regard to ongoing efforts in Australia to have proposed hosting of CHOGM in 2013 put off until there was progress on human rights and accountability in Sri Lanka over the war and some allegations of war crimes.
Asked whether India had objected to the creation of a Commonwealth Commissioner for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights as proposed by the Eminent Persons Group (EPG), Mathai said: "As far as the EPG is concerned, we have seen the report and we had a discussion on it in New York when the Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth met. I was present at that meeting. The report is very voluminous. It has got 106 recommendations covering the entire range of activities of the Commonwealth. The report itself was prepared over a period of one year with five meetings between July 2010 and July 2011. Since that time the member governments have had only a few weeks to actually look at it and, in fact, to start a discussion on it. I would not like to comment on each of the recommendations. Even these 106 have been classed into 14 core recommendations and the others. There are a number of areas where we think there is need for a more careful view."
Mathai said: "Certainly the proposal for the Commissioner for Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights is one on which we have some reservations. The responsibilities spelt out in this would seem to undermine the role of both the Secretary-General and the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group itself which is actually dealing with precisely those issues. Secondly, it seems to us that this particular proposal is like a duplication of what the UN is already doing through its Rapporteurs. And at a time when the organisation is facing budgetary difficulties whether it should really go that direction, is not quite clear. In fact, I raised the specific issue as to where the money was going to come from, and it was mentioned that it might involve reallocation of some of the resources of the Secretariat as of now. And when you consider that the current allocation and budget of the Commonwealth secretariat has been decided after considerable discussion and approval by the Heads, reallocation at this stage does not seem appropriate. It seems to us that the real focus of the Commonwealth should be once again on the development challenges which are uppermost in the minds of the vast majority of the members. So, while we support the important values of democracy, rule of law and human rights, we believe the Commonwealth should focus on strengthening the existing institutions rather than trying to create new ones."
Source: The Island, October 27, 2011
