CHRI at CHOGM

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is a key event in the Commonwealth calendar, and is held every two years. Nigeria was the host of the recently concluded meeting that was held in the capital city, Abuja, from December 5-8, 2003 and was attended by heads of government or senior representatives from 52 countries. Each time a different theme is selected for the meeting and the Heads of Government discuss and issue statements on this theme. This CHOGM's statement is the Aso Rock Commonwealth Declaration on Democracy and Development : Partnership of Peace and Prosperity.

While CHOGM itself is only attended by the Heads of Government, there are other opportunities for civil society groups to be involved. In fact, CHOGM itself was not the only Commonwealth event happening in Abuja at that time. Other events were organised by CHRI, the Commonwealth Foundation, the Nigerian government and other interested groups and offered these civil society groups important avenues to showcase their work, network and campaign.

One such event was the Commonwealth Human Rights Forum that was organised by CHRI, the Legal Resources Consortium and the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria, and supported by the CIDA, the Commonwealth Foundation and British Council. It brought together human rights organisations from around the Commonwealth and was held from 3-4 December in Abuja. At the Commonwealth Human Rights Forum was the launch of Commonwealth Human Rights Network. For more information click here.

CHRI also launched its biennial report to CHOGM, titled Open Sesame : Looking for the Right to Information in the Commonwealth, on December the 2nd and received very positive feedback. The launch and seminar was well attended with seventy people representing media, civil society and the report received excellent media coverage. In the speeches immediately prior to the launch there were presentations on case studies from around the Commonwealth and discussions on the value of the right. The report examines access to information in Commonwealth countries. It is intended to provide law-makers, advocates and the public with guidance on drafting and implementing freedom of information legislation. This is crucial to empowering people to more meaningfully engage in the democratic and development processes, increase government transparency and reduce corruption. Click here for the Report.

Media being a key partner in human rights advocacy, CHRI focused much attention on working with the media to ensure that human rights issues were included in the coverage of CHOGM. CHRI's team at CHOGM - Maja Daruwala , Clare Doube and Bernice Sam - gave television, radio and press interviews and were widely quoted in Nigeria and abroad. Highlights of the newspaper articles along with CHRI's press releases regarding CHOGM can be found here.

CHRI also participated in other civil society events that were part of the Commonwealth People's Forum organised by the Commonwealth Foundation. A full list of CPF events can be found by visiting www.commonwealthpeople.com. CHRI also participated in the Commonwealth Market-place through a stall of books and materials and disseminated information relating to issues of human rights in the Commonwealth.

One of the most important civil society events that CHRI participated in was the Civil Society Meeting. This was the culmination of five gatherings involving representatives of over 150 civil society organizations from more than 45 Commonwealth countries held between May and December 2003. The focus of the meeting was how to maximise the contribution of civil society to development and democracy.

The Commonwealth Youth Forum - a forum for young people from across the Commonwealth - was also held in Abuja from 25 November - 2 December 2003. Clare Doube of CHRI was on the international planning committee for the event and spoke at the Opening Ceremony on the need for effective implementation of Commonwealth commitments and gave other presentations on human rights.