The Progressive Development of Human Rights Standards at CHOGM
- Alison Duxbury
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne

It is now one year since the Commonwealth's main decision-making body, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), met in Nigeria and it is the same period of time again until it will meet in Malta. Over the years, the communiqués issued at the conclusion of each CHOGM have demonstrated discussion of a diverse range of subjects, such as Southern Africa, the environment, AIDS, economic cooperation, small states, and light weapons. In addition, the Heads of Government have progressively elaborated upon the standards that they believe that member states should uphold. The outcomes of the last meeting, including the human rights issues raised in the governmental statements and the action taken against Zimbabwe, were discussed in the Spring 2004 edition of CHRI News. This article will take a step back and review the way in which the adoption of human rights principles has evolved at CHOGMs since 1971. While this article concentrates on the standards adopted at CHOGM, this is not meant to underestimate the importance of statements made in other official Commonwealth meetings, or indeed the work of the Commonwealth Secretariat and non-governmental organisations. But when it comes to giving a public face to the expression of Commonwealth values, it is to the statements of the biennial meetings that we turn.

The Singapore Declaration of 1971 is regarded as the first articulation of a Commonwealth human rights policy by the Heads of Government. But when reading the Singapore Declaration it is important to recall the limitations within which the Commonwealth must act, set down only six years previously in the Agreed Memorandum on the Commonwealth Secretariat. Thus, the Agreed Memorandum states that the Commonwealth "does not encroach on the sovereignty of the individual members", nor does it require members to reach collective decisions. These limitations have provided a brake (albeit a progressively less significant one) on the development of a human rights programme by the organisation.

The Singapore Declaration refers to a wide range of standards, but concentrates on two fundamental principles: first, freedom from discrimination, and secondly, the importance of democratic political processes and representative institutions. In language uncharacteristically passionate for a document adopted by states in an international forum, the Heads of Government in Singapore declared that "racial prejudice" was a "dangerous sickness" and racial discrimination, "an unmitigated evil of society".

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