The Commonwealth of Nations

Prof. Amal Jayawardane

The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 independent states located in six geographical regions: Africa, Asia, the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe and the South Pacific. At present almost two billion people, or about 30% of the world's population, live in the Commonwealth.

The Modern Commonwealth began to evolve since the adoption of the London Declaration in 1949; however, its historical roots can be traced back to the late nineteenth century. Those colonies which achieved dominion status in the British Empire such as Canada (1867), Australia (1901, New Zealand (1907), and South Africa (1910) expressed their desire to evolve a new institutional structure to reshape their relationship with Britain. The Imperial Conference in 1926 adopted the Balfour Declaration which said that Britain and its dominions agreed that they were “equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of nations.”

After gaining Independence in 1947, India wanted to become a republic and end its constitutional ties with the Crown while remaining within the Commonwealth. This posed a new challenge to the Balfour criterion which required countries to owe a common allegiance to the British crown. This problem was successfully resolved at a conference of Commonwealth Prime Ministers in April 1949. The London Declaration decided to accept India's continued membership as a republic. India agreed to accept the King as the “symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and as such the Head of the Commonwealth.” Subsequently the prefix “British” was dropped from the title of the Commonwealth to signify the changing character of the organization. Thus, the London Declaration marked the beginning of the new Commonwealth. The Commonwealth membership has expanded from 8 in 1949 to 54 in 2009. With the decolonization movement, the newly independent non-white and developing countries became members of the organization. Rwanda was admitted to the Commonwealth at the 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Except for Rwanda and Mozambique, all the other commonwealth countries were part of the British empire. Through the Commonwealth, the colonial legacy has been transformed into a new form of partnership based on equality.

The Commonwealth represents a diverse group of nations with different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. However, they are committed to promote a set of values and principles which are outlined in several declarations: Singapore Declaration of 1971 emphasized the commitment to world peace, representative democracy, individual liberty, equality and opposition to racism, free trade and fight against poverty. The Lusaka Declaration of 1979 opposed discrimination on the basis of gender. The Langkawi Declaration of 1989 emphasized the importance of environmental sustainability. Aso Rock Declaration of 2003 reiterated the importance of the promotion of democracy and development. Democracy, good governance, and human rights occupy an important place in the present day Commonwealth discourse.

The Commonwealth is an intergovernmental organization; however, it also promotes citizen-to-citizen links across the commonwealth. It has a wide network of professional and advocacy organizations.

Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth

There is a longstanding bond between Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth. Sri Lanka became a member of the Commonwealth since the very beginning of her independence. Sri Lanka together with India and Pakistan were the first non-white dominions in the Commonwealth. Sri Lanka was among the eight countries which adopted the London Declaration in April 1949, and in that sense, Sri Lanka can be considered a founding member of the New Commonwealth

Due to the Soviet veto, Sri Lana could not gain membership in the United Nations till the end of 1955; therefore, it was the Commonwealth which provided an excellent opportunity for the country to be active in the international arena. During the early days of independence when the country did not have sufficient experience or well-developed infrastructure for the conduct of foreign policy, Sri Lanka benefitted a lot from the Commonwealth Relations Office (CRO) in maintaining communications with the outside world.

The Commonwealth also figured in Sri Lanka's security calculations. During the 1948-56 period, Sri Lanka's Prime Ministers had certain threat perceptions about India. Since India was also a member of the Commonwealth, it was believed that the Commonwealth connection would act as a restraining factor on India's “strategic designs” towards Sri Lanka. Economically also, the Commonwealth was important for Sri Lanka as her trade relations were mostly with the country's of the Sterling Area. The Colombo Plan was evolved as a result of the discussions that took place at the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers meeting held in Colombo in January 1950.

During the 1948-56 period Sri Lanka had a pro-Western foreign policy and the country followed the “British lead” in foreign affairs. . After 1956, Sri Lanka established diplomatic relations with the socialist countries and with the UN membership and the beginning of the nonaligned movement, Sri Lanka's international arena was greatly widened. Sri Lanka became less dependent on the Commonwealth. However, Sri Lanka still considered the Commonwealth connection as an important element in its foreign policy. Even though Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike wanted to make Sri Lanka a Republic, he wanted to continue the country's membership in the Commonwealth because he deeply shared the values that the Commonwealth stood for. He said that the Commonwealth represents “ a way of life, which includes parliamentary government, an independent judiciary, no discrimination between the State and the citizen, and the rule of law. I feel we should make an effort to foster this way of life, to show it to other countries.”

Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike declared Sri Lanka a Republic but continued the country's membership in the Commonwealth. She in fact used the Commonwealth forum to articulate some of her foreign policy initiatives. For example, it was at the Commonwealth Conference held in Singapore in January 1971 that Mrs. Bandaranaike first articulated her Indian Ocean Peace Zone proposal.

All the Prime Ministers/Executive Presidents who came to power during the post-independent period considered Sri Lanka's membership in the Commonwealth as an important factor in the country's foreign policy. During the last three decades Sri Lanka tried to make use of the Commonwealth forum to emphasize the need to eliminate terrorism.

Sri Lanka has been an active participant in all the activities of the Commonwealth. It has hosted the meetings of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association twice, in 1971 and 1994, and the country is once again ready to host the 58th meeting of the CPA in September this year.

Sri Lanka will also be the venue for the CHOGM in 2013. Other than these activities in the political arena, Sri Lanka has also been an active participant in other spheres such as education, culture, sports and technical cooperation.