Annex 1: Statement of Friday 28 October
2011
issued at Perth following a meeting of the 16
Realms of HM Queen Elizabeth II
"The Prime Ministers of the sixteen Commonwealth
nations of whom Her Majesty the Queen is Head of State have agreed
in principle to work together towards a common approach to amending
the rules on the succession to their respective Crowns. They will
wish unanimously to advise The Queen of their views and seek her
agreement.
"All countries wish to see change in two areas.
First, they wish to end the system of male preference primogeniture
under which a younger son can displace an elder daughter in the
line of succession. Second, they wish to remove the legal provision
that anyone who marries a Roman Catholic shall be ineligible to
succeed to the Crown. There are no other restrictions in the rules
about the religion of the spouse of a person in the line of succession
and the Prime Ministers felt that this unique barrier could no
longer be justified.
"The Prime Ministers have agreed that they will
each work within their respective administrations to bring forward
the necessary measures to enable all the realms to give effect
to these changes simultaneously."
Note: The 16 Realms are Antigua and Barbuda, Australia,
the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand,
Papua New Guinea, St Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent
and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and the United Kingdom.
| 
