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Mr. Shore: My hon. Friend illustrates the minuscule resources that, in recent years at any rate, we have been prepared to deploy.
I have emphasised the Harare declaration and the commitment to the promotion of democracy and human rights throughout Commonwealth countries. Last year, at the Heads of Government meeting in Auckland, the Commonwealth took major new steps to promote democracy and human rights, which were extremely significant and which have been quite inadequately reported.
First, the Commonwealth agreed to enhance the capacity of its secretariat to provide member Governments with advice, training and other forms of technical assistance in promoting the Commonwealth's fundamental political values, especially the democratic
process and procedure. Such enhancement of the Commonwealth Secretariat implies a certain strengthening, an investment, in the Commonwealth Secretariat here in Marlborough house.
Secondly, and very importantly, where the CHOGM--as it was called in Auckland--perceived that a member country was
Among the measures, of course, is suspension of Commonwealth membership--public denial of the rights of a Commonwealth member that has infringed the Harare declaration to take part in and attend other Commonwealth meetings. If the offending Government persist in violating the principles of the Harare declaration for more than two years, I think that there is the threat of complete expulsion. That measure is important and I shall illustrate it in connection with Nigeria, which is feeling the heat of ostracism by the Commonwealth.
Thirdly, the New Zealand Heads of Government conference agreed to establish the so-called Millbrook Commonwealth action programme, which is a committee consisting of Foreign Ministers from eight Commonwealth countries--I think that the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the right hon. Member for Richmond and Barnes (Mr. Hanley), may be our representative on it--plus the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, to provide an implementing mechanism. So, not content with public meetings and yearly or two-yearly condemnations, an on-going committee of pretty senior members of the Commonwealth was set up to look at the carrying out of any recommendations made by the Heads of Government, continuing the pressure on those who have fallen short of the Commonwealth's standards of democracy and human rights.
Three Commonwealth countries were selected at Auckland for particular attention: Sierra Leone, Gambia and Nigeria, whose military regime was suspended from membership. Considerable pressure has been put on the Nigerian Government since then, but I am sorry that, only two days ago, the threat of immediate Commonwealth sanctions was dropped because of disagreement--I think--among the Millbrook group. I should be grateful to hear more from the Minister of State when he replies to the debate. It was disappointing that immediate action was not taken, because Nigeria's response so far has been inadequate.
The sanction package agreed at Auckland includes a ban on weapon exports to Nigeria, visa restrictions on members of the regime and their families, an end to sporting links and the withdrawal of education facilities. I understand that Britain and other EU countries operate most of those sanctions against Nigeria, but their impact would be greatly reinforced if the Commonwealth as a whole agreed to collective action. Canada will go ahead in any case and impose sanctions, and New Zealand is expected to follow suit. It is good to know--and I should be grateful if the Minister confirmed this--that sanctions will be back on the agenda at the Foreign Ministers'
meeting in September. If Nigeria has not made significant improvements in its human rights record and in its progress towards the restoration of democracy, I hope that sanctions will be imposed.
In our report, we urged the Government to take the lead in promoting democracy in the Commonwealth. We said that we would like to see a strengthening of the Harare declaration and, in particular, the specific recognition that real democracy entails the right to organise opposition parties and to remove existing Governments via a free and fair election. It would be helpful to have that on the record. With that in mind, I was disappointed that the Secretary of State's response to the report stated:
Mr. Donald Anderson (Swansea, East):
Does my right hon. Friend agree that a real test of whether there is sustainable and substantial progress towards democracy--the existence of an opposition party--would be failed by a country such as Uganda? However, the current Government of that country are massively more credible and more democratic than their predecessors, and Uganda is clearly on the route to democracy, although without an opposition party.
Mr. Shore:
I agree with my hon. Friend that the direction and pace of improvement away from non-democratic forms of government to properly democratic ones is important. It would be helpful to have a standard that could be accepted by all countries as to what it means to be a democracy and to safeguard human rights. Britain is hosting the next Heads of Government meeting in 1997 in Edinburgh, and I hope very much that we shall make the extension of democracy and human rights the very centrepiece of the meeting.
Sir Colin Shepherd (Hereford):
Many thanks, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me so early in the debate. I thank the Chairman of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Mr. Howell), for selecting this topic for examination by his Committee. I congratulate him and all the members of his Committee on the success of the work that they have done on behalf, I believe, of the Commonwealth, not only of the United Kingdom in the Commonwealth.
My right hon. Friend's work has accompanied me on a number of voyages to different parts of the Commonwealth. It has become almost a standard work
of definition for the Commonwealth because of its careful exploration of the various networks involved in it. As such, it will be a valuable work of reference for a number of years not just because it may point not only to how the United Kingdom sees the Commonwealth but how the Commonwealth sees itself. It is particularly valuable for that.
I shall restrain myself to two specific dimensions of the report. The first is the strength of affinity that I find when I visit the Commonwealth on parliamentary business. That strength of affinity makes me embarrassed or sometimes more than embarrassed at the lack of awareness of the Commonwealth in Britain. The report will be helpful in heightening that awareness.
The report refers to the need to sustain the Commonwealth Institute because for 100 and some years it has been the mechanism by which we have sought to increase awareness of the Commonwealth and its predecessors within our own country. The House will be aware of the traumas that the Commonwealth Institute has gone through in the past four years or thereabouts.
I welcome the commitment to the Commonwealth Institute in the Government's response, but I should like to see a stronger commitment. I should like the Government fairly and firmly to affirm their belief in the need to press our public to gain a better understanding of this unique organisation, which is so much part of the fabric of our life and of what we take for granted.
It is interesting to note that the undercurrents are there. We have recently said farewell to the Canadian high commissioner Royce Frith, who has returned to Canada. He had a unique success in Britain in arranging, possibly accidentally, for every fishing vessel to be bathed in the Canadian flag and still not upsetting his host Government. Underlying that was the unspoken reflection among our public that the Commonwealth was important to us, even though we take it for granted and do not really understand how it affects us.
I want to see the Commonwealth Institute enabled to do its work. I have to point out to the House at this time that I have a slight vested interest in that I am a governor of the institute. I see a former governor sitting across the House and I am certain that he shares my views. Let us do all that we can to increase awareness among our people, using whatever mechanism is possible and bearing in mind the remarks of my right hon. Friend the Member for Guildford when he introduced the report that because we do not fight one another we do not get much press coverage. There is an immense amount to be done in that respect.
The second aspect about which I wish to speak, is the reference which pops up throughout the report to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. With a United Kingdom hat on, I welcome the reaffirmation of Her Majesty's Government's continued support for the work of the association. It is important, without a doubt. Wearing the international chairman's hat that I am currently privileged to wear, I wish to say how important it is to all 134 branches of the CPA that Her Majesty's Government so strongly affirm the work of our association.
I was delighted that the Committee not only took evidence but explored it and reported so positively on the work of the CPA. As has been said, we were singled out in the Harare declaration as having the task of spreading the
message of parliamentary democracy. Especially in the years since 1981--though before then as well--we have set out to discharge those obligations. We have enormously expanded the work that has been directed to that. We have increased the number of seminars that we run.
We responded in advance to the report's admonition to do more to encourage countries seeking to establish parliamentary democracy. I must mention the two missions that we sent to South Africa before 1994. The first, under my predecessor, in 1991 was helpful in creating awareness of the support that was available. It was reinforced by the mission that I led in November 1993 when the transitional constitution was being set up. It was useful in providing the reassurance that there was a great network of assistance waiting in the wings to help in any way possible. Immediately after the 1994 elections, the Commonwealth was delighted to receive South Africa back into membership.
We have run into difficulties in that the more that we have achieved, the more we have been asked to do. We are almost inundated with requests to do what we say that we can do. However, we are a small and lean organisation, not a rich one. We are led by our able secretary general, Arthur Donohue, the former Speaker of the provincial assembly of Nova Scotia. He has a team of 12 people over the road at Millbank. They work hard and effectively but they are increasingly stretched and the question of financial resources arises.
We are exploring ways to increase our gearing. We are halfway through a programme of parliamentary workshops for southern African parliamentarians. That is a new development that we have been exploring. It is a combined exercise between the CPA and the Overseas Development Administration, operating through its British development division in southern Africa. We have put together a programme of five workshops aimed at bringing into the net the new parliamentarians of South Africa and its provinces and putting them alongside the parliamentarians of the front-line countries. We are three down with two to play. Co-operation is working well with the BDDSA.
We have been working with the Commonwealth secretariat to develop programmes for training officials. That is another important dimension of the southern Africa exercise. While we as parliamentarians have been bending our minds to the development of the parliamentary skills of southern Africans, it is vital to provide the back-up of parliamentary clerk or secretaryship. It has been lacking for the want of means to build it up. The House has a distinct part to play in that, both through the CPA and through the House of Commons Overseas Office. We need to find more ways to act in cahoots with other governmental agencies to expand our work. I would be grateful if my right hon. Friend the Minister would heed that. We need ministerial intervention to smooth the path and open doors to enable us to develop our activities.
I thank the Commonwealth parliamentarians who have participated in the parliamentary workshops. I have called in resource people from Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, the Bahamas, Grenada, Australia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Kenya. They have all dropped what they were doing and given me a week of their time in southern Africa to progress the work. I will call on a lot more people before I am finished. As the Commonwealth expands, as I believe it will continue to do because of its activities, it
becomes increasingly important to sustain that network, which is dependent on the ability to communicate with one another.
"clearly in violation of the Harare declaration and particularly in the event of an unconstitutional overthrow of a democratically elected Government",
it committed itself to take measures to encourage the restoration of democracy. Those measures range from the public expression of collective disapproval to a number of bilateral and multilateral sanctions by other Commonwealth countries.
"The Government is not persuaded that an attempt at this stage to amplify the Harare declaration, through incorporating more precise definitions of democracy, would be either acceptable to other Commonwealth governments or achievable."
I hope that that is only an interim response.
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