CHOGM

"LandepNews"

CHOGM

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Australia on Saturday failed to create a common body that would act as a human rights watchdog for all the 54 member nations, even though participants insisted that progresses have been made to promote democratic values. Julia Gillard, Australian Prime Minister, said that there were several countries that rejected the idea of setting up a commissioner to oversee the human rights observance, the rule of law and the functioning of democracy in all the states.
She added that Australia and a number of state had been very supportive of the proposal, but that it was dropped because the Commonwealth, that comprises two billion people, is a body where decisions must be made by consent.
The works of the CHOGM started on Friday and are expected to be concluded on Sunday. The summit came under sever criticism for having failed to impose the observance of the human rights, and some members were criticized for it.
Sri Lanka was criticized for its use of force in 2009 that led to war crimes while ending the decades-long war against Tamil.
Australia, Canada and Britain, the richest countries in the Commonwealth, demanded that an independent human rights watchdog be established and that the effort to observe human rights be increased. Emerging states however decided to support the idea of non-interference into their internal affairs.
Gillard said that some progress had been made nevertheless as a charter is to be drawn and it will be comprising values common to all countries of the Commonwealth. The Australian PM said that the charter will be drafted by 2012.
The concern about discrimination of people who are infested with AIDS and about the surge of homophobic violence were also addressed by the summit.
The Queen of England, who in this summit is Head of State for 16 representatives, said in the opening words that the organization must keep a fresh perspective, so that it may also be useful in the future.
The Queen also advocated the need of the Commonwealth to ascribe women more important role in the society.
The words of the Queen could not have been better illustrated than the decision made on Friday to modify the succession laws that would allow the sons and daughters of the kings and queens to succeed to the throne without a gender pre-eminence.
In other words, the first-born of the future King will become monarch even though it is a boy or a girl. The British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the stipulation that was saying that the crown prince must be a first-born male, and that the crown passes to a female member of the royal house only when there is no male issue in line for the throne, was obsolete and reflected the mind of the people that lived 300 years ago. The new decision would reflect the mind of the 21-century subjects of the monarchy.
Cameron said that the law would not apply retrospectively, that is it will only come into force beginning with Prince William and Princess Catherine of Cambridge. The first issue of Prince William’s family will become the King of England or the Queen of England.
The Prime Minister also announced that the new law lifts the ban on marrying a Roman Catholic woman or man when a monarch. Although the King or Queen must remain in communion with the Church of England because they are the head of this church, they are no longer forbidden to marry a Roman Catholic person as they were until now.
The Prime Minister of Scotland said that, while the ban lift was a step forward, the new law failed to ensure the equality of religions in the United Kingdom as it did not allow the monarchs themselves to be Roman Catholics.
16 countries have the Queen Elizabeth II as a Head of State. They must revise their constitutions so that they may accommodate the new provisions.

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