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Prime Minister John Key attended the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago from the 27th to the 29th of November.
The 2009 CHOGM comes as the Commonwealth celebrates its 60th anniversary year.
The Commonwealth is the outcome of an ongoing evolution. It began to emerge in the nineteenth century as countries shifted from colonial to dominion status (conferring internal self-government and considerable freedom in external relations, and coming to imply equality with Britain), culminating in the 1931 Statute of Westminster (conferring sovereign status on the Dominions).
1949 was a further turning point and precedent; leaders signed the London Declaration enabling India - as a republic - to belong to the Commonwealth.
Today the Commonwealth has 54 member countries spanning six continents. It includes the world’s second most populous country (India), the second largest in land mass (Canada), and many of its smallest and remote (Nauru being the world’s smallest republic) nations. The association also includes the world’s driest and most sparsely-populated country (Namibia), and also the home to some of the world’s best-conserved tropical forests (Guyana).
Its membership is also politically diverse. There are 16 Parliamentary monarchies headed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, five national monarchies (Brunei, Lesotho, Malaysia, Swaziland, and Tonga) and 33 republics.
Through this diversity, Commonwealth countries have a strong sense of kinship and unity. Their historic link is the common use of the English language and the common culture inherited from a largely shared colonial past. This has bequeathed members with similar systems of law, education, government and some common cultural traditions. All Commonwealth countries accept the British sovereign as the "Head of the Commonwealth".
The Commonwealth is an intergovernmental organisation, with countries as its members. However it is also an association of people, a ‘family’ of 2 billion people from across the globe. The people-to-people links are supported by the Commonwealth Foundation, acting as an umbrella organisation for some 30 Commonwealth associations of professionals. In total, there are over 250 Commonwealth-wide organisations maintaining links across a range of professional fields, sport, youth and education.
The apex of the association’s governmental activities is the biennial meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government, where the policy and activities of the Commonwealth are decided. The London-based Commonwealth Secretariat, led by a Secretary-General (Indian Kamalesh Sharma, elected in 2007), supports and executes official Commonwealth activity.
The Commonwealth has no founding charter, but members commit themselves to the statements of belief and guiding principles set out by successive Heads of Government. These include the Declaration of Commonwealth Principles (Singapore 1971), the Harare Declaration (Zimbabwe 1991) and the Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme (New Zealand 1995).
The Royal Commonwealth Society facilitated a global dialogue in 2009 - called The Commonwealth Conversation to reflect upon the past and to consider what the future may hold for the organisation. More
