The club, which is home to some 2.5 billion people, around a third of the world’s population, presents itself as a cooperative network with common goals, but critics say it needs to take concrete action and be more than a simple chat room.
The week-long summit held in Rwanda’s capital Kigali was marked on Friday by comments from Britain’s Prince Charles, who expressed sadness for his country’s role in the transatlantic slave trade , the first time the Commonwealth has publicly addressed the subject.
Some members urged the organization to go further by discussing reparations to countries affected by the transatlantic slave trade.
The subject was not mentioned in the final statement or press conference, which instead focused on statements regarding sustainable development, health care and gender equality.
A “Living Lands Charter” declared that Commonwealth countries would strive to implement previously signed international agreements, such as the Paris climate accord.
“We know that we are in code red on climate change and that smaller member states are facing a crisis that could be existential,” Patricia Scotland, re-elected during the summit as Commonwealth Secretary-General, told reporters.
Scotland has also touted increased trade between members of the Commonwealth, which it says is expected to reach $2 trillion a year by 2030 after collapsing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gabon and Togo have been newly accepted into the Commonwealth, part of a trend for former French colonies in Africa to seek new alliances beyond Paris’ old networks of influence.
“If the Commonwealth was not alive, dynamic and constructive, why would countries like Gabon…and Togo join it?” Gabon’s foreign minister Michael Moussa Adamo told Reuters.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Difficult questions about the host country were almost absent from the public discussions of the summit.
Many human rights groups consider Rwanda one of the most repressive countries in Africa. The US State Department has cited credible reports of arbitrary executions by the government, including retaliatory killings abroad for political reasons.
The neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo accuses Rwanda of backing rebels who are carrying out a major offensive in eastern Congo.
Rwanda denies all these accusations. At the press conference, Rwandan President Paul Kagame defended Rwanda’s human rights record and accused Western governments of hypocrisy.
“There is no one who is in prison in Rwanda who should not be there,” he said. “In fact, there are people who are not in prison and who should be there”.
Britain’s controversial policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda, described as “appalling” by Prince Charles, according to British media, has also been in the spotlight. Both Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Kagame have defended it.