[Against a backdrop of rising populism, AI-driven misinformation, and ‘transactional diplomacy’, panellists at a two-day conference explored whether the Commonwealth’s 56 nations are truly equipped to defend a rules-based international order. These two excerpts are from the final report.]

Excerpt one:

The creation of the Commonwealth Secretariat 60 years ago, which went on to establish a Commonwealth-wide team of diplomats and administrators to oversee programmes and policies and to provide informed insights; and secondly, the Millbrook Action Programme on the Harare Declaration, which set up the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) 30 years ago to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law as well as sanction states found to be in violation of these tenets. But with the advance of far-right and populist regimes in recent years, there have been increasingly blatant displays of transactional diplomacy and attacks (both actual and contemplated) on international regimes of sovereignty, human rights and the rule of law. While this is not unprecedented, attacks on democratic governance have in recent months benefited from rising disregard for fact-checking, particularly in the age of social media and artificial intelligence. This has highlighted the importance of responsible and accountable reporting, as well as the safeguarding of sites of knowledge production across the world, as a key priority for states, people, and international organisations whose commitment to democracy is primordial.

In this context, the panellists and the audience coming together for this conference, in-person and online, considered a series of vital questions for the Commonwealth as an organisation of states and peoples, looking both at the relevance of programmes and dialogue within the Commonwealth and at the relevance of the Commonwealth itself (state and non-state) on the wide international stage. How well equipped is the Commonwealth to face the multiplicity of challenges posed to a rules-based international system? What leadership, or support, can its experience, expertise, institutions and networks provide, to preserve and promote the rule of law, in both domestic contexts and on the international stage?

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Excerpt two:

In a final roundtable, participants to the conference discussed current trends and future research. Several questions were addressed in turn:

• How can the Commonwealth remain credible and relevant in promoting democracy and human rights?
• How can its contribution be strengthened in the current context of declining multilateralism?
• How can, or should, the Commonwealth deal with sovereignty in the current international context?
• Thirty years on, has the Commonwealth learned from the crisis of the 1990s/2000s? How can it mobilise this experience and its own history to meet the challenges of authoritarianism and popular nationalism?

Participants took stock of the fact that the Commonwealth Secretariat of the 2020s is very different from what it was in the 1970s-1990s, not just because of local, regional, national, international and global evolutions since then, but also in terms of human and financial resources. They also discussed the importance of further research in the connections, relations, ongoing and possible dialogues between the Commonwealth and other organisations (including in the Francophone and Lusophone spheres). Participants reflected on the impact of ‘cultures of impunity’ and of the criminalisation of protest, both outside and within Commonwealth member states, on ‘cultures of democracy’ and state and non-state agency.

Overall, it was felt that Commonwealth institutions and associations still provided added value to achieving democracy, equality, human rights and the rule of law, notably in relation to young people, and discussions revolved on the many voices behind the “cultures” of democracy, with the need to bring in a wide range of divides (urban/rural, for instance), more fully into the picture. How is consensus achieved? Is there still a place for quiet diplomacy? Has the Commonwealth as a voluntary association impacted global democracy, and what influence have the political cultures of member states had on the making of pan-Commonwealth programmes? Promoting democracy in its fullest sense, ultimately, comes up against the boundaries of states. For the Commonwealth Secretariat, striking a balance between defining and applying common values and protecting the sovereignty of states is vital, practically and symbolically. In this respect, the politics of emotions (including anger, pride and shame), of language (from plain speaking to terminology and mono/plurilingualism) and of access (across all media) are certainly key areas of further study.

The full report from Cherisse Francis, Sue Onslow, Virginie Roiron and Mélanie Torrent is now available.