Commonwealth at crossroads

Ahead of the CHOGM in Perth, writing in the Trinidad Express on Monday, Peter Kellner, journalist and chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society, accuses the conference and the institution of the Commonwealth of "sleeping walking into irrelevance".

Urging it to reconsider its plans to hold the next meeting in Sri Lanka, a country that has refused to investigate credible allegations of war crimes, Kellner states,

"The Commonwealth's ability to become a respected 21st century global network rests on its commitment to democracy and human rights. For this week's meeting to confirm Sri Lanka unconditionally as hosts in two years' time would be to confirm the worst fears that the Commonwealth has utterly lost its way."

See article in full here.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button