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The Commonwealth
- What is it?
- Voluntary association of 54 independent
member states (mostly former British
colonies); officially called "The
Commonwealth of Nations"
- Covers 30% of the
world's population
- covers 25% of the world's land
area (spans all continents)
- Organized by the Commonwealth
Secretariat (in London)
- Since 1952: Queen
Elizabeth II is the symbolic
Head of Commonwealth
- Queen = monarch of 16
Commonwealth member states
- Queen = monarch of 16
Commonwealth member states
- Member states: no legal
obligation to one another
- Member states are
united by language,
history, culture, heritage
- Share common values of
democracy, human rights, and
the rule of law
- enshrined in the
Commonwealth Charter
- promoted by the Commonwealth
Games (every 4 years)
- enshrined in the
Commonwealth Charter
- Share common values of
democracy, human rights, and
the rule of law
- Voluntary association of 54 independent
member states (mostly former British
colonies); officially called "The
Commonwealth of Nations"
- History
- Beginning of the decolonization of the British Empire (end of
19th century) marks the birth of the Commonwealth
- Anglo-Irish Treaty (1929): "British Empire" finally
substituted by "British Commonwealth of Nations"
- 1931: the British guranteed dominion
status for their "white colonies" >>
"Statute of Westminster"
- Canada, Australia,
New Zealand,
Newfoundland"
- Canada, Australia,
New Zealand,
Newfoundland"
- Dominion status states
became self-governing states
- still united by common
allegiance to the crown
- still united by common
allegiance to the crown
- After World War II: only 14 British
overseas territories left under
governance of the British Crown
- Beginning of the decolonization of the British Empire (end of
19th century) marks the birth of the Commonwealth
- Strucure
- Queen Elizabeth II =
Head of Commonwealth
- Nowadays only symbolic function
- Nowadays only symbolic function
- Commonwealth Heads of
Government meet every two years
- Commonwealth Secretariat: main intergovernmental
agency of the Commonwealth with its seat in London
- Queen Elizabeth II =
Head of Commonwealth
- Objectives and
Activities
- Commonwealth objectives: first outlined in
the Singapore Declaration (1971)
- understands itself as an institution of world peace
- promotion of representative democracy,
individual liberty, pursuit of equality
- opposition of racism
- fight against poverty, disease and ignorance
- free trade (although there's no
common market
- human rights
- education
- youth empowerment
- social development
of weaker countries
- economic development aid
- cultural values, traditions...
- Commonwealth objectives: first outlined in
the Singapore Declaration (1971)
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