Commonwealth of Nations

[TheOfficialBren]

Oh, I see. Thank you, Nathan. That was very informative and interesting.

[McClef]

Interestingly countries which were never part of the Empire have joined the Commonwealth such as Mozambique and Rwanda and the new country of South Sudan has applied to join.

[TheOfficialBren]

That is interesting. What are the qualifications for a country to join the Commonwealth if there is no historical precedent?

[Carlo]

That is interesting. What are the qualifications for a country to join the Commonwealth if there is no historical precedent?

Membership Criteria

All member states, except for Mozambique (which joined in 1995) and now Rwanda (which joined in 2009), have experienced direct or indirect British rule or been linked administratively to another Commonwealth country. At the 1997 summit in Edinburgh, Heads of Government considered the criteria for Commonwealth membership and agreed that in order to become a member of the Commonwealth, an applicant country should, as a rule, have had a constitutional association with an existing Commonwealth member state; that it should comply with Commonwealth values, principles and priorities as set out in the Harare Commonwealth Declaration of 1991; and that it should accept Commonwealth norms and conventions.

At the 2005 summit in Malta, aware of a growing interest in the Commonwealth from many countries, including outstanding applications to join, Heads of Government mandated a Committee on Commonwealth Membership that would prepare a report on the various issues of membership for the next CHOGM in Kampala, Uganda, in 2007. The committee – chaired by P J Patterson, former prime minister of Jamaica – met twice (in December 2006 and May 2007) prior to submitting its report to Commonwealth leaders for their consideration. Heads of Government subsequently set out their agreed 'core criteria' for membership in the Kampala Communiqué.

The application of the Republic of Rwanda for membership of the Commonwealth was considered by Heads of Government in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in November 2009. This was done in accordance with the criteria and procedures agreed at their meeting in Kampala in 2007. At the end of their deliberations, they warmly welcomed Rwanda into the Commonwealth family as its 54th member.
Quote: http://www.commonwealthofnations.org...ship-criteria/

[Singlemalt]

I completely agree with everything that Nathan and others have said. But, there is also an emotional connection, now I will admit it used to be stronger in my youth when the Empire was not such a distant memory. I can remember in public school we had to learn and identify all the countries in the Commonwealth on the map right after we got all the Provinces down. It was a warm an comforting feeling that we had friends with a common history and traditions representing all races, speaking many languages and in all corners of the world. In those old school maps and globes all the Commonwealth countries were all in a warm pink colour. I can remember the great pride I felt as a small boy when I noticed that mine was the biggest!

[Silk]

I have to say that, as a new user, even though I was lurking and reading some of the other interesting posts on this site, this one made me register so I could comment. lol Ironically, I had just 2 or 3 days ago been posting facts about the Commonwealth to one of my Facebook pages.... reading and researching and writing out facts to regale my friends with (all of whom were totally uninterested! lol) All my time and no one there so much as liked or made a single comment so I thought I would like to at least comment here where people are interested in the subject!

So I just wanted to post a bit of what I learned so far:

Firstly, there are 54 member countries/states/territories at this time. The chart below shows each of these along with the year they became a member of the Commonwealth and their status as a Realm, Monarchy or Republic. Please note that the Commonwealth dates to 1931 and therefore those members who joined in 1931 are considered the senior or founding members of the Commonwealth (along with the United Kingdom who is at its centre of course.)




For every country listed as a "Realm"... The Queen is the official (symbolic) Head of State and the Queen of that country. Again, this is for symbolic purposes to honour history/tradition and her political role is completely under the direction/authority of that country's government. She is also not considered "foreign" in any of these countries just to state that as I have often seen comments made (not here but elsewhere) where she is called a "foreign monarch" (which she is not.) Ex. Canada, Australia, etc.

For every "Monarchy" listed.... that country has established its own monarchy and does not have the Queen as their monarch nor Head of State but does acknowledge the Queen as the Head of the Commonwealth (ex. Swaziland)

For every "Republic" listed... that country neither has the Queen as their monarch nor Head of State and has not chosen their own monarch either. They do, however, accept the Queen as Head of the Commonwealth. (Ex. This applies to a lot of the member countries from Africa.)

I research my information primarily from the monarchy's website and also an official Commonwealth website and I have more to share if there is any interest!