| 22nd Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Host country |  Australia |
| Dates | 28–30 October 2011 |
| Cities | Perth |
| Venues | Kings Park |
| Heads of State or Government | 36[1] |
| Chair | Julia Gillard (Prime Minister) |
| Follows | 2009 |
| Precedes | 2013 |
| Key points | |
The2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, commonly known asCHOGM 2011,[2][3] was the 22ndMeeting of theHeads of Government of theCommonwealth of Nations. Held inPerth, Western Australia, between 28 and 30 October 2011 and hosted by the Prime MinisterJulia Gillard.
Perth, Western Australia, hosted the conference, the first time the city hosted the event and the first time the event had been held in Australia since the2002 meeting atCoolum,Queensland.Kings Park served as the leaders' retreat.[4]
A heavy security presence was placed in Perth with many parts of the city being declared "security areas" as delegated with newly enumerated authority to clamp down on protests. In thePerth Central Business District, where the Queen was due to open the summit, nearly every street corner had a police presence.F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets of theRoyal Australian Air Force also patrolled the skies.[5]
TheHead of the Commonwealth, QueenElizabeth II, incorporated the CHOGM Official Opening into herofficial visit to Australia, accompanied by her husband,Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The tour lasted from 19 to 29 October and included visits toCanberra,Australian Capital Territory;Brisbane,Queensland;Melbourne,Victoria; andPerth.[6] In attendance at the ceremony were the Queen,Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the incomingCommonwealth Chair-in-Office,Kamla Persad-Bissessar, thePrime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and outgoing Commonwealth Chair-in-Office, theCommonwealth Secretary-GeneralKamalesh Sharma and many heads of government or heads of state from the 53 Commonwealth states.[7]
British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron arrived late for the summit as he was attending aEuropean Union summit on financialbailouts.[5]
Guy Sebastian headlined the Official Opening in Perth, performing "Agents of Change,"[8][dubious –discuss] a song he wrote especially for the event.
Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth
Kamalesh Sharma, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations
Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister of Antigua and BarbudaJulia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia(host)
Brent Symonette, Deputy Prime Minister of The Bahamas
Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh
Freundel Stuart, Prime Minister of Barbados
Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belize
Ian Khama, President of Botswana
Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan of Brunei
Philemon Yang, Prime Minister of Cameroon
Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus
Isatou Njie-Saidy, Vice President of the Gambia
John Mahama, Vice President of Ghana
Tillman Thomas, Prime Minister of Grenada
Carolyn Rodrigues, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guyana
Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Vice President of India
Mwai Kibaki, President of Kenya
Taomati Iuta, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kiribati
Pakalitha Mosisili, Prime Minister of Lesotho
Bingu wa Mutharika, President of Malawi
Najib Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia
Mohamed Nasheed, President of Maldives
Tonio Borg, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malta
Navinchandra Ramgoolam, Prime Minister of Mauritius
Armando Guebuza, President of Mozambique
Hifikepunye Pohamba, President of Namibia
Marcus Stephen, President of Nauru
Murray McCully, Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand
Goodluck Jonathan, President of Nigeria
Yusuf Raza Gilani, Prime Minister of Pakistan
Peter O'Neill, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda
Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis
June Soomer, Special Envoy of Saint Lucia
Cenio Lewis, High Commissioner of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Kingdom
Tuilaʻepa Saʻilele Malielegaoi, Prime Minister of Samoa
James Alix Michel, President of Seychelles
Ernest Bai Koroma, President of Sierra Leone
Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore
Peter Shannel Agovaka, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Solomon Islands
Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa
Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka
Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini, Prime Minister of Swaziland
Jakaya Kikwete, President of Tanzania
Sialeʻataongo Tuʻivakanō, Prime Minister of Tonga
Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
Willy Telavi, Prime Minister of Tuvalu
Edward Ssekandi, Vice President of Uganda
David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Sato Kilman, Prime Minister of Vanuatu
Guy Scott, Vice President of ZambiaDavid Cameron announced hisproposals to reform the rules governing the royal succession.[9] Also discussed were topics on how the Commonwealth should celebrate theDiamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.[10]
The summit considered a report by an Eminent Persons Group panel, appointed at the last CHOGM. The panel suggested the Commonwealth's relevance was lost and was further decaying due to the lack of a mechanism to censure member countries when they violated human rights or democratic norms.[11] The panel also made 106 "urgent" recommendations including the adoption of aCharter of the Commonwealth, the creation of a new commissioner on the rule of law, democracy and human rights to track persistent human rights abuses and allegations of political repression by Commonwealth member states,[12] recommendations for the repeal oflaws against homosexuality in 41 Commonwealth states and a ban on "forced marriage."[1][13]
The otherCommonwealth realm prime ministers agreed to British Prime Minister David Cameron's proposal that therules for the royal successionbe reformed.[9] The reforms need to be approved by parliaments of all 16 realms.[14]New Zealand was chosen to chair a working group to consider the best way of accomplishing this reform in all the countries concerned.[15]
The summit failed to reach an agreement to endorse or even publish theEminent Persons Group report; the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada urged the publication of the report but were opposed by India,Nigeria,Sri Lanka, South Africa andNamibia. The EPG had been commissioned at the 2009 CHOGM to make proposals for modernisation and reforms.[12] The failure to release the report, or accept its recommendations for reforms in the area of human rights, democracy and the rule of law was decried as a "disgrace" by former British Foreign Secretary SirMalcolm Rifkind, a member of the EPG, who told a press conference: "The Commonwealth faces a very significant problem. It's not a problem of hostility or antagonism, it's more of a problem of indifference. Its purpose is being questioned, its relevance is being questioned and part of that is because its commitment to enforce the values for which it stands is becoming ambiguous in the eyes of many member states. The Commonwealth is not a private club of the governments or the secretariat. It belongs to the people of the Commonwealth."
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, former prime minister of Malaysia and chair of the EPG, warned "this CHOGM is expected to deliver meaningful reforms of the Commonwealth. If this CHOGM does not deliver such reforms, it is our duty to sound the caution to you that this CHOGM will be remembered not as the triumph it should be, but as a failure."[13]
On the summit's final day it was agreed to develop a charter of values for the Commonwealth as "one clear, powerful statement" without any agreement about enforcement. Two-thirds of the EPG's 106 recommendations were referred to study groups, an act described by one EPG member[who?] as having them "kicked into the long grass." There was, however, still no agreement to create the recommended position of human rights commissioner, instead a ministerial management group was empowered with enforcement.[11] The summit chair, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, hailed the decision to develop the charter of values and adopt new rules for the ministerial management body as "major decisions" and "significant reforms."[11] TheCharter of the Commonwealth was subsequently adopted on 19 December 2012 and was officially signed by Queen Elizabeth II at Marlborough House, London, on the Commonwealth Day on 11 March 2013.
Indian Prime MinisterManmohan Singh skipped the summit in protest against Australia's refusal to sell India uranium as it had not signed theNuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.[16] Instead, the ceremonial vice-president,Hamid Ansari, led the Indian delegation. When reports suggested that the Commonwealth Secretariat had refused to grant Ansari head of government status and attendant protocol honours, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said that: "In our system, the vice president holds a position of great importance. He is second in the warrant of precedence." India also claimed that Singh's calendar was full,[17] but the Commonwealth was not being snubbed as it was still relevant.[18] Australia later denied that Singh's pull out from the summit was over its refusal to sell uranium.[19][20]
Canadian Prime MinisterStephen Harper walked out of the summit during its last day when Sri Lankan PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa was invited to speak. He also had threatened to boycott the 2013 CHOGM summit, scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka, if allegations of human rights abuses against the country'sTamil minority were not investigated.[11]
In response to a suggestion by the British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron that the United Kingdom would cut off aid to any country that failed to recogniseLGBT rights,President of GhanaJohn Atta Mills pledged to never support or initiate any attempt to legalise homosexuality in his country and decried attempts by one country to dictate the societal norms of another state.[21]
