Blog 2:"Talks to move Commonwealth summit from Sri Lanka"

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, (CHOGM), is a biennial summit meeting of the heads of government from all Commonwealth nations. Every two years the meeting is held in a different member state, and is chaired by that nation's respective Prime Minister or President, who becomes the Commonwealth Chairperson-in-Office.

            The commonwealth summit is schedule to be held in November of this year in Sri Lanka. There are however talks about moving the event to a different country due to human rights issues in Sri Lanka unless, the government makes prompt, measurable, and meaningful progress on these issues. In this current article it is said that,” the Sri Lankan government under President Mahinda Rajapaksa has taken no meaningful steps to address serious abuses by government forces in the final months of the armed conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, during which the United Nations has estimated that up to 40,000 civilians died.” Since this event it is said that human rights issues have worsen. The government has said to have done this by doing clampdowns on basic freedoms, attacks and threats against civil society, and actions against the judiciary and other institutions, imperiling Sri Lanka’s democracy.

            I think that what the commonwealth society is concerned about is the embarrassment these issues will have on the commonwealth and its member countries by hosting the event in a country that is disregarding the commonwealth’s principles. The benchmarks that have been set be the Human Rights Watch for Sri Lanka seems to be becoming impossible and this is causing more serious consideration for the move of the commonwealth summit. In my opinion I think that the move is most likely to occur because; “Providing guarantees that all Sri Lankan people will be treated with dignity and respect as equal citizens and live in an environment in which they can enjoy all fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Sri Lanka”, will definitely take more than just a few months.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/06/sri-lanka-move-commonwealth-summit


3:15Pm, 2/8/2013, Sandrene Nelson.