Everything about Commonwealth Of Nations Membership Criteria totally explained
Commonwealth of Nations membership criteria are the corpus of requirements that members and prospective members must meet to be allowed to participate in the
Commonwealth of Nations. The criteria have been altered by a series of documents issued over the past seventy-five years.
The most important of these documents were the
Statute of Westminster (1931), the
London Declaration (1949), the
Singapore Declaration (1971), the
Harare Declaration (1991), the
Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme (1995), and the
Edinburgh Declaration (1997). New members of the Commonwealth must abide by certain criteria that arose from these documents, the most important of which are the Harare principles and the Edinburgh criteria.
The Harare principles require all members of the Commonwealth, old and new, to abide by certain political principles, including democracy and respect for human rights. These can be enforced upon current members, who may be suspended or expelled for failure to abide by them. To date,
Fiji,
Nigeria,
Pakistan, and
Zimbabwe have been suspended on these grounds; Zimbabwe later withdrew over its consistent non-compliance.
The foremost of the Edinburgh criteria requires new members to have either constitutional or administrative ties to at least one current member of the Commonwealth of Nations. In most cases, that current member would be the
United Kingdom, although this isn't necessarily so. The Edinburgh criteria arose from the
1995 accession of
Mozambique, the only member to date that was never part of the
British Empire (in whole or part). The Edinburgh criteria are now being reviewed in light of renewed interest in states that don't qualify under it.
History
Founding documents
The formation of the Commonwealth of Nations is dated back to the
Statute of Westminster, an
Act of the
British Parliament passed on
11 December 1931. The Statute established the independence of the
Dominions, creating a group of equal members where, previously, there was one (the United Kingdom) paramount. The solitary condition of membership of the embryonic Commonwealth was that a state be a Dominion. Thus, the independence of
Pakistan (1947),
India (1947), and
Sri Lanka (1948) saw the three countries join the Commonwealth as independent monarchies; on the other hand,
Burma (1948) and
Israel (1948), didn't join the Commonwealth, as they chose to become republics. The membership of
Éire lapsed when it unambiguously became a republic in
1949.
With
India on the verge of promulgating a
republican constitution, the
1949 Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference was dominated by the impending departure of over half of the Commonwealth's population. To avoid such a fate,
Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent proposed that republics be allowed to remain in the Commonwealth, provided that they recognise the monarch of the
Commonwealth Realms as '
Head of the Commonwealth'. This agreement, known as the
London Declaration thus established the only formalised rule as being that members must recognise the Head of the Commonwealth. This arrangement prompted suggestions that other countries, such as
France,
Israel, and
Norway, join. However, for the next four decades, only newly-independent countries would accede.
Singapore Declaration
The first statement of the political values of the
Commonwealth of Nations was issued at the
1961 conference, at which the members declared that
racial equality would be one of the cornerstones of the new Commonwealth, at a time when the organisation's ranks were being swelled by new African and Caribbean members. The immediate result of this was the withdrawal of
South Africa's re-application, which it was required to lodge before becoming a republic, as its government's
apartheid policies clearly contradicted the principle.
Further political values and principles of the Commonwealth were affirmed in
Singapore on
22 January 1971, at the first
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). The fourteen points clarified the political freedom of its members, and dictated the core principles of the Commonwealth:
world peace,
liberty,
human rights,
equality, and
free trade. However, neither the terms nor the spirit of the Declaration were binding, and several openly flouted it; despite little conformity, only
Fiji was ever expelled for breaching these tenets (on
15 October 1987, following the
second coup of that year).
Harare Declaration
The Harare Declaration, issued on
20 October 1991 in
Harare,
Zimbabwe, reaffirmed the principles laid out in Singapore, particularly in the light of the ongoing dismantling of apartheid in
South Africa. The Declaration put emphasis on human rights and democracy by detailing these principles once more:
Millbrook Programme
The
Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme, issued on
12 November 1995 at the
Millbrook Resort, near
Queenstown,
New Zealand, clarified the Commonwealth's position on the Harare Declaration. The document introduced compulsion upon its members, with strict guidelines to be followed in the event of breaching its rules, including (but not limited to) expulsion from the Commonwealth. Adjudication was left to the newly-created
Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG).
At the same CHOGM, the Programme was enforced for the first time, as
Nigeria was suspended. On
19 December 1995, the CMAG found that the suspension was in line with the Programme, and also declared its intent on enforcing the Programme in other cases (particularly
Sierra Leone and
The Gambia). On
29 May 1999, the day after the inauguration of Nigeria's first democratically-elected
President,
Olusẹgun Ọbasanjọ, the country's suspension was lifted, on the advice of the CMAG.
Edinburgh criteria
In
1995,
Mozambique joined the Commonwealth, becoming the first member to have never had a constitutional link with the United Kingdom or another Commonwealth member. Concerns that this would allow open-ended expansion of the Commonwealth and dilute its historic ties prompted the 1995 CHOGM to launch the
Inter-Governmental Group on Criteria for Commonwealth Membership, to report at the 1997 CHOGM, to be held in
Edinburgh, the United Kingdom. The group decided that, in future, new members would be limited to those with
constitutional association with an existing Commonwealth member.
In addition to this new rule, the former rules were consolidated into a single documents. These requirements, which remain the same today, are that members must:
accept and comply with the Harare principles.
be fully sovereign states.
recognise the monarch of the Commonwealth realms as the Head of the Commonwealth.
accept the English language as the means of Commonwealth communication.
respect the wishes of the general population vis-à-vis Commonwealth membership.
On the advice of Secretary-General Don McKinnon, the 2005 CHOGM, held in Valetta, Malta, decided to re-examine the Edinburgh criteria. The Committee on Commonwealth Membership reported at the 2007 CHOGM, held in Kampala, Uganda. According to Don McKinnon, the members of the Commonwealth decided in principle to expand the membership of the organisation to include countries without linkages to the Commonwealth, but Eduardo de Buey stated that it would still take some time until the criteria are reformed. New members are expected to be accepted at the 2009 CHOGM.
Prospective members
Eligible countries
The following countries would be eligible under the Edinburgh criteria (but not necessarily Harare):
(British protectorate until 1919)
(British protectorate until 1971)
(part of British India until 1947, currently in constitutional link with India)
(Hong Kong and parts of Shanghai were British colonies in the early 20th century. Tibet was also previously a British protectorate)
(British protectorate until 1922)
(Part of the UK 1801 - 1921, British dominion 1921 - 1948) was formerly a member as the Irish Free State.
(British protecotrate of Transjordan until 1946)
(British protectorate until 1961)
(Anglo-French condominium from 1945 until 1951)
(British Colony of Burma until 1948)
(Former British protectorate. Still contributes gurkhas to the British military)
(Mosquito Coast was protectorate until 1850)
(British protectorate of Muscat & Oman until 1971)
(British protectorate until 1971)
(brief confederation with The Gambia as Sénégambia Confederation from 1982 to 1989).
(British Somaliland was protectorate until 1960)
(Anglo-Egyptian condominium until 1956). Sudan has applied to join the Commonwealth.
has applied to join the Commonwealth.Footnotes
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