As the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting gets under way today, Kurt Sansone is intrigued by the figures that make up the organisation.
If the maxim that there is strength in numbers holds true, the Commonwealth could be a force to reckon with on the global political stage.
Made up of 53 countries with a geographic spread covering six continents, the Commonwealth is home to 2.2 billion people. It groups economic power houses like the UK, Australia and India with tiny nations, some of which have populations smaller than Birkirkara.
These numbers on their own are impressive but other than a grouping that brings together countries that once formed part of British imperial might, the Commonwealth has little world impact.
In the words of British High Commissioner to Malta Rob Luke, the Commonwealth is not a “hard-powered” organisation. The group has no common rules that are enforceable like in the EU and even at the basic level of human rights it encompasses a diversity that is eye-watering.
From countries like Malta and the UK, where same-sex couples have rights equal to married heterosexual couples, to places like Uganda that enacted an anti-gay law; from countries like Canada that rank eighth for press freedom to others like Sri Lanka that languish at 165 in the World Press Freedom index released by Reporters without Borders, the diversity puts into question the Commonwealth’s political relevance.
But supporters argue the Commonwealth’s value lies in the networking created both at governmental and societal level. The biannual get-together, referred to by its acronym, CHOGM, also gives small countries the chance to lobby for bilateral trade deals. This year’s CHOGM also has climate change on its agenda, providing a platform for discussion ahead of the climate change talks in Paris next week.
It is the reason French President Francois Hollande is hopping over. Small pacific island nations like Tuvalu and Kiribati, which risk extinction at the hands of rising sea levels as a result of global warming, may use the Malta meeting to influence the positions of bigger countries on climate change.
But detractors of the Commonwealth insist the grouping is nothing more than a nostalgic relic of Britain’s once glorious past andthe money spent on keepingthe organisation going would bebetter utilised on affiliations that matter, like the EU and the World Trade Organisation.
Even so the Commonwealth’s numbers remain impressive.
Founded in 1949, the combined GDP of Commonwealth countries is expected to reach a staggering $13 trillion in 2017.
It is also home to a very young population: 60 per cent are under 30 years of age.
The Commonwealth has also spawned more than 80 organisations that bring together governmental agencies, members of civil society, sports organisations and educational institutions.
According to Mr Luke the Commonwealth has a big challenge to demonstrate its relevance in responding to key global questions. In an interview with The Sunday Times of Malta, he said CHOGM had to show the 2.2 billion citizens that living in a Commonwealth country can make a difference.
How to do that remains a question open for debate and one unlikely to vanish anytime soon. But when all is said and done, the numbers underpinning the Commonwealth will remain impressive, if that is of any consolation.
kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com