Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

'Crisis-hit' Commonwealth holds pre-Copenhagen summit

By Space Daily
November 25, 2009

LONDON, Nov 25 (AFP)--Commonwealth leaders gather in Trinidad from Friday in the last major international meeting before a crucial UN climate conference in Copenhagen.

The 53-nation gathering is being portrayed as an essential stepping stone to Copenhagen, where world leaders will try to draw up a post-2012 accord to slash emissions from fossil fuels that cause greenhouse gases.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said the twin challenges of the pressing need for action on climate change and the battle against the global recession made the three-day meeting in Port of Spain a "crisis summit".

"We have all had a bad few years of crisis upon crisis. The fuel and food crises of last year have been compounded by a financial crisis in 2009, in which less no less than half of our members are suffering negative growth," he told Commonwealth civic leaders in Trinidad ahead of the talks.

Founded 60 years ago, the Commonwealth now stretches around the globe, encompassing two billion people and accounting for a fifth of world trade.

The club of mainly former British colonies could grow further as the meeting will consider a membership application from Rwanda, a move backed by Commonwealth heavyweights though opposed by human rights campaigners.

But with the clock ticking to the start of the talks on December 7, the issue of climate has risen to the top of the agenda.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon as well as Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen will go to Trinidad for discussions on climate warming with Commonwealth leaders on Friday.

In an unusual move, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will also attend, fresh from taking part in a meeting of eight Amazon countries in the Brazilian city of Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon jungle.

Sharma said he wanted the Trinidad meeting to produce a strong political statement to take to Copenhagen but stressed the need to ensure that the voice of the Commonwealth's smaller nations is heard.

"The ones most starkly affected in many instances by global warming are the many small and vulnerable states that have negligible carbon footprints," he told reporters in a pre-meeting briefing in London.

Politicians from one tiny Commonwealth member, the Maldives, donned flippers and snorkels for an underwater cabinet meeting in October to warn against rising sea levels that threaten to submerge the low-lying archipelago.

Its president, Mohamed Nasheed, has warned that if every developed country enters the Copenhagen negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible, it would be a "recipe for collective suicide."

Rwanda's bid to join the Commonwealth, 15 years after hundreds of thousands of people were killed in a genocide, is supported by Britain and Canada, two of the organisation's main financial contributors.

They argue that if the former German colony, which later came under a Belgian mandate from the League of Nations, joined the club it would be forced to raise its standards under increased international scrutiny.

But Human Rights Watch claims President Paul Kagame's administration suppresses democracy, freedom of speech, the press and human rights.

The group says the Commonwealth's claim to uphold those values would be undermined if it opened its doors to Rwanda.

The Commonwealth must also consider how to persuade Fiji to return to democracy.

The Pacific country had its membership suspended in September after its military ruler refused to meet Commonwealth demands to call elections by October next year, following a coup in December 2006.

Earlier this month, Commonwealth members Australia and New Zealand expelled Fiji's top envoys in a tit-for-tat retaliation for a similar move by the country's military regime, abruptly raising regional tensions.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, the Head of the Commonwealth, will officially open the talks on Friday.

Related Materials:
Commonwealth group maintains opposition to Rwanda

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative : Rwanda is the source of instability in region

The state of governance and human rights in Rwanda does not satisfy Commonwealth standards

Report on Rwanda s Application for Membership of the Commonwealth: An assessment against Core Criteria

Comment on the Law Relating to the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Ideology of Rwanda

posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 10:26 PM