The Commonwealth Conversation

With the largest gathering of Commonwealth civil society, the Commonwealth Peoples Forum, about to kick off in Trinidad and Tobago, Mark Collins, Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, reflects on the value of Commonwealth civil society.

Hugh Craft, a senior Australian diplomat and former Director of the Political Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat, assesses the success and value of the Commonwealth

With Trinidad and Tobago hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at the end of November, the Commonwealth Conversation interviewed one of T&T’s biggest sports stars: footballer Dwight Yorke.

As part of the Commonwealth Conversation, the RCS has interviewed Vince Cable. Dr Cable is a popular British MP and former Special Advisor on Economic Affairs to Sir Sonny Ramphal at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

As the Conversation has gone on, a question I am frequently asked is: why should public profile matter for an association like the Commonwealth?

Over the next six weeks, in the run up to CHOGM, over fifty Commonwealth Conversation events are taking place around the world.

In an article published on Tuesday 20th October 2009, in Caribbean Net News, Maja Daruwala, Executive Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative has called for CMAG reform to be top of the agenda at the Trinidad CHOGM. CMAG is the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group – the Commonwealth watchdog on human rights abuses.

Sir Peter Marshall, former Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General, and Zoe Ware, from the Royal Commonwealth Society, give two differing perspectives on the Commonwealth at 60 from their respective generations in the October 2009 issue of The Round Table, The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.

Will the average person walking down a street have any idea what a CHOGM is? My guess is no.