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Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting

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The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM; Template:IPAc-en orTemplate:IPAc-en) is a biennial summit meeting of the governmental leaders from all Commonwealth nations.<ref name="UIA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Despite the name, the head of state may be present in the meeting instead of the head of government, especially among semi-presidential states.Template:NoteTag Every two years the meeting is held in a different member state and is chaired by that nation's respective prime minister or president, who becomes the Commonwealth Chair-in-Office until the next meeting. Queen Elizabeth II, who was the Head of the Commonwealth, attended every CHOGM beginning with Ottawa in 1973 until Perth in 2011,<ref name=guar>"Queen to miss Commonwealth meeting for first time since 1973" The Guardian, 7 May 2013</ref> although her formal participation only began in 1997.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> She was represented by the Prince of Wales at the 2013 meeting as the 87-year-old monarch was curtailing long-distance travel.<ref name=guar/> The Queen attended the 2015 summit in Malta<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the 2018 summit (delayed by one year) in London, but was represented again by the Prince of Wales at the 2022 meeting (delayed by two years) in Rwanda.<ref name=rwanda>Rajeev Syal, "Commonwealth leaders head to Rwanda for first summit since 2018", The Guardian, 20 June 2022. Retrieved 23 June 2022</ref>

The first CHOGM was held in 1971 in Singapore and there have been 27 held in total: the most recent was held in Apia, Samoa.<ref name=rwanda/> They are held once every two years, although this pattern has occasionally been interrupted. They are held around the Commonwealth, rotating by invitation amongst its members.

In the past, CHOGMs have attempted to orchestrate common policies on certain contentious issues and current events, with a special focus on issues affecting member nations. CHOGMs have discussed the continuation of apartheid rule in South Africa and how to end it, military coups in Pakistan and Fiji, and allegations of electoral fraud in Zimbabwe. Sometimes the member states agree on a common idea or solution and release a joint statement declaring their opinion. More recently, beginning at the 1997 CHOGM, the meeting has had an official theme, set by the host nation, on which the primary discussions have been focused.<ref name="Edinburgh Diary">Template:Cite journal</ref>

HistoryEdit

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File:CommonwealthPrimeMinisters1944.jpg
The heads of government of five members of the Commonwealth of Nations at the 1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference.

The meetings originated with the leaders of the self-governing colonies of the British Empire.<ref name="Seminars for Statesmen">Template:Cite journal</ref> The First Colonial Conference in 1887 was followed by periodic meetings, known as Imperial Conferences from 1907, of government leaders of the Empire. The development of the independence of the dominions, and the creation of a number of new dominions, as well as the invitation of Southern Rhodesia (which also attended as a sui generis colony),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> changed the nature of the meetings.<ref name="Seminars for Statesmen" /> As the dominion leaders asserted themselves more and more at the meetings, it became clear that the time for 'imperial' conferences was over.

From the ashes of the Second World War, seventeen Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conferences were held between 1944 and 1969. Of these, sixteen were held in London, reflecting then-prevailing views of the Commonwealth as the continuation of the Empire and the centralisation of power in the British Commonwealth Office (the one meeting outside London, in Lagos, was an extraordinary meeting held in January 1966 to co-ordinate policies towards Rhodesia). Two supplementary meetings were also held during this period: a Commonwealth Statesmen's meeting to discuss peace terms in April 1945, and a Commonwealth Economic Conference in 1952.

The 1960s saw an overhaul of the Commonwealth. The swift expansion of the Commonwealth after decolonisation saw the newly independent countries demand the creation of the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the United Kingdom, in response, successfully founding the Commonwealth Foundation.<ref name="Canada and the creation of the Commonwealth Secretariat">Template:Cite journal</ref> This decentralisation of power demanded a reformulation of the meetings. Instead of the meetings always being held in London, they would rotate across the membership, subject to countries' ability to host the meetings: beginning with Singapore in 1971. They were also renamed the 'Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings' to reflect the growing diversity of the constitutional structures in the Commonwealth.

StructureEdit

File:Commonwealth Heads meeting 2018 (40942285303).jpg
Theresa May chairs the 2018 session

The core of the CHOGM are the executive sessions, which are the formal gatherings of the heads of government to do business. However, the majority of the important decisions are held not in the main meetings themselves, but at the informal 'retreats': introduced at the second CHOGM, in Ottawa, by Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau,<ref name="Twenty Commonwealth steps" /> but reminiscent of the excursions to Chequers or Dorneywood in the days of the Prime Ministers' Conferences.<ref name="Seminars for Statesmen" /> Only the head of the delegation and their spouse and one additional person attend the retreats. The additional person may be of any capacity (personal, political, security, etc.) but only has occasional and intermittent access to the head of the delegation.<ref name="Seminars for Statesmen" /> It is usually at the retreat where, isolated from their advisers, the heads resolve the most intransigent issues: leading to the Gleneagles Agreement in 1977, the Lusaka Declaration in 1979, the Langkawi Declaration in 1989, the Millbrook Programme in 1995, the Aso Rock Declaration in 2003,<ref name="Seminars for Statesmen" /> and the Colombo Declaration on Sustainable, Inclusive and Equitable Development in 2013.

The 'fringe' of civil society organisations, including the Commonwealth Family and local groups, adds a cultural dimension to the event, and brings the CHOGM a higher media profile and greater acceptance by the local population.<ref name="Twenty Commonwealth steps" /> First officially recognised at Limassol in 1993,<ref name="Seminars for Statesmen" /> these events, spanning a longer period than the meeting itself, have, to an extent, preserved the length of the CHOGM: but only in the cultural sphere.<ref name="Twenty Commonwealth steps" /> Other meetings, such as those of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, Commonwealth Business Council, and respective foreign ministers, have also dealt with business away from the heads of government themselves.

As the scope of the CHOGM has expanded beyond the meetings of the heads of governments themselves, the CHOGMs have become progressively shorter, and their business compacted into less time.<ref name="Twenty Commonwealth steps">Template:Cite journal</ref> The 1971 CHOGM lasted for nine days, and the 1977 and 1991 CHOGMs for seven days each. However, Harare's epochal CHOGM was the last to last a week; the 1993 CHOGM lasted for five days, and the contentious 1995 CHOGM for only three-and-a-half.<ref name="Seminars for Statesmen" /> The 2005 and subsequent conferences were held over two to two-and-a-half-days. However, recent CHOGMs have also featured several days of pre-summit Commonwealth Forums on business, women, youth, as well as the Commonwealth People's Forum and meetings of foreign ministers.

IssuesEdit

File:CHOGM 2011 protest gnangarra-86.jpg
Protests during the 2011 CHOGM in Perth

During the 1980s, CHOGMs were dominated by calls for the Commonwealth to impose sanctions on South Africa to pressure the country to end apartheid. The division between Britain, during the government of Margaret Thatcher which resisted the call for sanctions and African Commonwealth countries, and the rest of the Commonwealth was intense at times and led to speculation that the organisation might collapse. According to one of Margaret Thatcher's former aides, Mrs. Thatcher, very privately, used to say that CHOGM stood for "Compulsory Handouts to Greedy Mendicants."<ref>PBS Video, The Windsors: A Royal Family (1994)</ref> According to his daughter, Denis Thatcher also referred to CHOGM as standing for 'Coons Holidaying on Government Money'.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron informed the British House of Commons that his proposals to reform the rules governing royal succession, a change which would require the approval of all sixteen Commonwealth realms, was approved at the 28–30 October CHOGM in Perth, subsequently referred to as the Perth Agreement.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Rwanda joined the Commonwealth in 2009 despite the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative's (CHRI) finding that "the state of governance and human rights in Rwanda does not satisfy Commonwealth standards", and that it "does not therefore qualify for admission".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Both the CHRI<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Human Rights Watch<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> have found that respect for democracy and human rights in Rwanda has declined since the country joined the Commonwealth. There have been calls<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> for the Commonwealth to stand up for democracy and human rights in Rwanda at the 2022 CHOGM.

AgendaEdit

Under the Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme, each CHOGM is responsible for renewing the remit of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, whose responsibility it is to uphold the Harare Declaration on the core political principles of the Commonwealth.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

IncidentsEdit

A bomb exploded at the Sydney Hilton Hotel, the venue for the February 1978 Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting. Twelve foreign heads of government were staying in the hotel at the time. Most delegates were evacuated by Royal Australian Air Force helicopters and the meeting was moved to Bowral, protected by 800 soldiers of the Australian Army.

As the convocation of heads of governments and permanent Commonwealth staff and experts, CHOGMs are the highest institution of action in the Commonwealth, and rare occasions on which Commonwealth leaders all come together. CHOGMs have been the venues of many of the Commonwealth's most dramatic events. Robert Mugabe announced Zimbabwe's immediate withdrawal from the Commonwealth at the 2003 CHOGM,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Nigeria's execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others on the first day of the 1995 CHOGM led to that country's suspension.<ref name="Twenty Commonwealth steps" />

It has also been the trigger of a number of events that have shaken participating countries domestically. The departure of Uganda's President Milton Obote to the 1971 CHOGM allowed Idi Amin to overthrow Obote's government. Similarly, President James Mancham's attendance of the 1977 CHOGM gave Prime Minister France-Albert René the opportunity to seize power in the Seychelles.<ref name="Twenty Commonwealth steps" />

Participating countriesEdit

Current member statesEdit

Former member statesEdit

List of meetingsEdit

Year Date Country City Retreat Chairperson Secretary-General Head of the Commonwealth
1971 14–22 January Template:Flagcountry Singapore None Lee Kuan Yew Arnold Smith Elizabeth II
1973 2–10 August Template:Flagcountry Ottawa Mont-Tremblant Pierre Trudeau
1975 29 April – 6 May Template:Flagcountry Kingston None Michael Manley
1977 8–15 June Template:Flagcountry London Gleneagles Hotel James Callaghan Shridath Ramphal
1979 1–7 August Template:Flagcountry Lusaka Lusaka Kenneth Kaunda
1981 30 September – 7 October Template:Flagcountry Melbourne Canberra Malcolm Fraser
1983 23–29 November Template:Flagcountry New Delhi Goa Indira Gandhi
1985 16–22 October Template:Flagcountry Nassau Lyford Cay Lynden Pindling
1986 * 3–5 August Template:Flagcountry London None Margaret Thatcher
1987 13–17 October Template:Flagcountry Vancouver Okanagan Brian Mulroney
1989 18–24 October Template:Flagcountry Kuala Lumpur Langkawi Mahathir Mohamad
1991 16–21 October Template:Flagcountry Harare Victoria Falls Robert Mugabe Emeka Anyaoku
1993 21–25 October Template:Flagcountry Limassol None Glafcos Clerides
1995 10–13 November Template:Flagcountry Auckland Millbrook Jim Bolger
1997 24–27 October Template:Flagcountry Edinburgh St Andrews Tony Blair
1999 12–14 November Template:Flagcountry Durban George Thabo Mbeki
2002 2–5 March Template:Flagcountry Coolum None John Howard Don McKinnon
2003 5–8 December Template:Flagcountry Abuja Aso Rock Olusegun Obasanjo
2005 25–27 November Template:Flagcountry Valletta Mellieħa Lawrence Gonzi
2007 23–25 November Template:Flagcountry Kampala Munyonyo Yoweri Museveni
2009 27–29 November Template:Flagcountry Port of Spain Port-of-Spain Patrick Manning Kamalesh Sharma
2011 28–30 October Template:Flagcountry Perth Kings Park Julia Gillard
2013 15–17 November Template:Flagcountry Colombo Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte Mahinda Rajapaksa
2015 27–29 November Template:Flagcountry Valletta; Mellieħa Fort St Angelo Joseph Muscat
2018 19–20 April Template:Flagcountry London, Windsor Windsor Castle Theresa May Patricia Scotland
2022 24–25 June Template:Flagcountry Kigali Kigali Convention Centre Paul Kagame
2023 * 5–6 May Template:Flagcountry London None Charles III
2024 citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref> ||Template:Flagcountry||Apia||Mulifanua|| Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa

2026 TBD Template:Flagcountry<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> St. John's TBD TBD Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey

*The 1986 and 2023 meetings were special sessions that fell outside the usual timetable. The 1986 CHOGM convened to discuss the issue of apartheid and only involved a handful of heads of government. The 2023 meeting (billed as 'Commonwealth Leaders' Summit') was an extraordinary session on the occasion of the Coronation of King Charles III and consisted of a leaders meeting at Marlborough House and a reception at Buckingham Palace. Heads of State were also in attendance and the position of Chair-In-Office did not transfer to the prime minister of the United Kingdom. According to a statement issued by the Commonwealth Secretariat "After their meeting with the King, leaders from the Commonwealth's 56 member states then met privately to discuss issues of mutual interest, including initiatives to support the empowerment of young people, as this year has been designated the Commonwealth Year of Youth."<ref name="thecommonwealth.org">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The 25th CHOGM was originally scheduled for Vanuatu in 2017 but the country rescinded its offer to host after Cyclone Pam devastated the country's infrastructure in March 2015.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The meeting was rescheduled for the United Kingdom in the spring of 2018<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> which also resulted in the 26th CHOGM, originally scheduled for 2019, to be rescheduled for 22–27 June 2020.<ref name="comm">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 26th CHOGM was again postponed to 2022.

NotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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