WITH 12 days to go before the start of this month’s Commonwealth Summit in Perth, Australia, serious discontent is reported among some governments of the 54 member nations over a decision against making public, ahead of the three-day international event, a far-reaching report from an Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on the need for essential reforms.

The outgoing chairperson of the Commonwealth, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and the host and incoming head of the group of nations, Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard, are reported to be at variance on the timing of public disclosure of the EPG’s report that was commissioned at the previous Commonwealth Summit in Port-of-Spain.

While Prime Minister Gillard has indicated that she would have preferred releasing the report prior to the start of the meeting in Perth, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar was not persuaded that this would be appropriate, in view, according to unconfirmed reports, of prevailing disagreements over some significant recommendations in the report submitted by the EPG.

The differences include, for example, the recommendation to establish a Commissioner for Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights, and this could prove to be a source of expected sharp disagreements, including representatives from some African and Asian member states, while those of the older and developed Commonwealth nations, such as Britain, Canada and Australia would be strongly supportive.

The surprising publication deferral on the EPG report is in sharp contrast to what happened some 25 years ago when a similar group of eminent persons went to South Africa to assess the ramifications of apartheid. The implementation of that group’s recommendations proved most valuable. Their report was made public some four months prior to the Commonwealth Summit of that year.

There are also concerns over likely absentees among Heads of Government, perhaps the most prominent being Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, the most populous and among the oldest of the so-called non-white nations of the Commonwealth.

From the Caribbean Community, likely absentees could include outgoing president of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo, who has called new national elections for November 28, and the expected new prime minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, who is tipped to succeed Bruce Golding following the latter’s resignation in a matter of days.

In writing on the coming Perth Summit, Richard Bourne, senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, has observed that among changes proposed by the EPG is a separation of the civil society’s People’s Forum and its meeting with foreign ministers that normally occurs the week before the start of the summit.

Instead, the EPG’s recommendation is that this event should be scheduled for the year between summits — as proposed differently previously, on the argument that this change would “break the myth” that the People’s Forum can have much last-minute impact on the deliberations of the leaders of government.

For Bourne, first director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), the real issue of the coming Perth Summit is whether the governments of the 54 member countries, “want this body to play a more important role in the world, or whether they will be accomplices in its continuing marginalisation ….”

“Most unbiased students of international affairs,” contends Bourne, “would say that, so far in the 21st century, the Commonwealth has done too little to justify its existence. This applies right across its core; claimed commitments to democracy; the rule of law and human rights…”

Negative consequences

Meanwhile, in Canada, which was represented on the 11-member EPG, whose report has been placed in the possession of all Commonwealth Heads of Government and foreign ministers, there have been some critical assessments of the refusal to make public the group’s findings and recommendations.

The general tone of media reports is that Commonwealth leaders have strangely opted to sit on the submitted “ground-breaking report” prepared by their own advisory group that has concluded that the organisation stands to lose international relevance and moral authority unless it boldly travels the road of necessary reforms.

The group was tasked with raising the profile and influence of the Commonwealth. After a major review that included public consultation, the advisory group submitted, a month ago, its final report, titled, ‘A Commonwealth of the People: Time for Urgent Reform’.

As disclosed, there are 106 recommendations, including a call for a proposed ‘Charter of the Commonwealth’, and appointment of a Commissioner for Democracy and Rule of Law who would constantly monitor compliance and report on states that are persistent in violations of core values in human rights and other areas pertaining to democratic governance.