The Commonwealth’s Purpose and Problems
Is the voluntary association of 54 countries with roots in colonialism an outdated relic of the British Empire or a needed global advocate for its members?
Welcome to So Many Thoughts, a semi-weekly newsletter about royal style and the other parts of life I want to think through with you. You can subscribe here and follow me on Instagram at @EHolmes. Thank you!
The Queen will not be attending the Commonwealth Day Service on Monday, Buckingham Palace said on Friday. The service at Westminster Abbey is one of the key events on the annual royal calendar, celebrating the Commonwealth and its 54 independent member countries. The royal family typically turns up in full force, with the Queen, her children, and her grandchildren all in attendance (fashion-wise, it’s formal daywear at its finest. Remember Meghan’s green cape dress? That was from Commonwealth Day.).
Her Majesty has asked Prince Charles to represent her instead, which is not something she would have done lightly. The Queen has a great deal of affection for the Commonwealth and is deeply devoted to her role as its head. She has been cited repeatedly as the driving force behind the “voluntary association” and the members’ shared commitment to its stated goals, including promoting democracy and sustainability.
But there are also very valid questions about the future of an organization that grew out of the downfall of the British Empire. “An irrelevant institution wallowing in imperial amnesia” is how Phillip Murphy, director for the Institute for Commonwealth Studies at the University of London, described it in his 2018 book, The Empire’s New Clothes.
When I asked on Instagram for your thoughts about the Commonwealth, you all used words including “antiquated,” “declining,” and “shameful” to describe it. I also received a slew of questions: What exactly is the Commonwealth, why and how was it formed, and what is its purpose today? Below I have compiled a Commonwealth primer, which I hope we can use as a starting point to discuss this further.
* * *
The Queen delivers a speech during the opening of the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. (Photo via i-Images / Polaris)
What is the Commonwealth?
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 independent countries, nearly all of which have ties to the British Empire. (The word “voluntarily” is frequently used to describe it, seeming to underscore the interest of its members.)
According to the Commonwealth’s website, it represents a combined population of 2.5 billion people — just shy of a third of the total global population — and a combined GDP of $10 trillion (for reference, that is about half the GDP of the United States). More than 60% of Commonwealth citizens are under the age of 30.
India is the largest nation by population; Canada has the most land. But a significant focus of the Commonwealth is on its small states, defined as countries with a population of 1.5 million or less as well as those that share “many of the same characteristics,” according to the royal family’s website, including Botswana and Lesotho. Of the world’s 42 small states, 32 are in the Commonwealth.
All members must recognize Queen Elizabeth II as head of the Commonwealth. She also serves as head of state in the United Kingdom and 14 other nations, which are known as Commonwealth realms. This role is largely symbolic, as these are sovereign and independent states. Five Commonwealth countries have their own monarch (Lesotho, Swaziland, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, and Tonga) and 34 are republics.
What countries are in the Commonwealth?
There are 15 Commonwealth realms, which have the Queen as their head of state (listed alphabetically): Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom.
There are 39 other member countries, which recognize the Queen as the head of the Commonwealth (listed alphabetically): Bangladesh, Barbados, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Cyprus, Dominica, Eswatini, Fiji, the Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia.
What does the Commonwealth do?
The Commonwealth’s tagline is: “54 countries working together for prosperity, democracy and peace.” Its website lists five main priorities:
protect the environment and encourage sustainability
promote trade and the economy
support democracy
encourage young people, particularly on issues of gender equality, education, health, and sport
support small states
(You can read the Commonwealth Charter here.)
But its record is mixed and many descriptions of it are quick to note the problems along with its purpose. From the Council on Foreign Relations, a non-partisan think tank:
“Critics have called the Commonwealth institutions outmoded and ineffective, and the group has at times drawn fire for its inconsistent response to human rights violations and antidemocratic governments. But supporters say the Commonwealth’s fast-growing economies, bolstered by a common history and shared language, offer an ideal platform for the UK to advance its trade agenda and deepen ties with like-minded countries.”
From a 2018 Associated Press story:
“Many look with pride on the organization's role in the 1970s and '80s in trying to end apartheid in South Africa. But many Commonwealth nations have been plagued by corruption or destabilized by coups. Zimbabwe's former president, Robert Mugabe, pulled his country out of the group in 2003 after it was suspended for widespread human rights abuses…Still, the Commonwealth provides support for democracy and corruption-fighting, and gives its smaller members a chance to be heard as part of an international network.”
Post Brexit, the Commonwealth has been seen by some as a new means of global influence for the UK. “Those who campaigned for Brexit have urged Theresa May to focus on boosting trade with Commonwealth nations, citing shared language, common law and cultural interests,” read a 2018 report in the Times. However, the move meant smaller Commonwealth members lost a powerful advocate in the European Union.
The Queen speaking at the Commonwealth Games in 1998. (Photo via Getty Images)
What events does the Commonwealth hold?
Every two years, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) brings together leaders from each of the member countries. This year it will be held in Kigali, Rwanda from June 22 to 27 (it was rescheduled from 2020 due to COVID). Patrick Wintour, the diplomatic editor at the Guardian, wrote about the 2018 meeting: “In an already overcrowded schedule of diplomatic summits, this is often seen as the ‘zombie summit,’ a biennial gathering of whimsy that refuses to die.”
The most high-profile event is the Commonwealth Games, which happen every four years. They are slated to take place this year from July 28 to August 8 in Birmingham, U.K. (You can watch a trailer made for the games in pre-COVID 2018.) The games will feature roughly 15 sports, including badminton, lawn bowl, field hockey and squash, according to the Commonwealth of Nations. Its 54 member nations compete, along with 17 overseas territories and island states, including the Channel Islands.
Like the Commonwealth, the Games have plenty of critics, including for the cost (this year alone the tally is £778 million, according to the BBC). The 2010 games in New Delhi faced myriad problems over security, health, and venue concerns, according to Reuters. The Birmingham Games have come under fire for a lack of diversity; in 2020 it was revealed that 19 of the 20 organizers were white.
Comedian John Oliver made the games the subject of his “How is this still a thing?” segment in 2014. He called them an “off Broadway version of what the Olympics would look like” as well as “the historic display of a once-mighty nation gathering together the countries it lost and finding a way to lose to them once more.”
Ok, let’s talk about its colonial roots. How was the Commonwealth formed?
The Commonwealth largely grew out of the dismantling of the British Empire. Nearly all of its members “were territories which had historically come under British rule at various times by settlement, conquest or cession,” according to the royal family’s website.
The idea dates back to the 1926 Imperial Conference, when leaders of seven countries (Australia, Canada, India, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, New Zealand and South Africa) “agreed that they were all equal members of a community within the British Empire,” according to the Commonwealth’s website. “They all owed allegiance to the British king or queen, but the United Kingdom did not rule over them.” This first iteration, which was formalized five years later by the United Kingdom through the Statute of Westminster, was known as the British Commonwealth of Nations.
After World War II, the British Empire was gradually dismantled (this was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI). The current Commonwealth took shape in 1949, two years after India declared its independence but asked to remain in the Commonwealth. The London Declaration, issued by the Commonwealth Prime Ministers, allowed republics to be a part of the Commonwealth for the first time — no allegiance to the Crown required. They also dropped “British” from the name, giving birth to the modern Commonwealth of Nations, or simply just the Commonwealth.
A young Queen Elizabeth poses with Commonwealth leaders gathered for an economic conference in 1952. (Photo via Getty Images)
Who is the head of the Commonwealth?
Queen Elizabeth II took over as the head of the Commonwealth following her father’s death in 1952. It’s a role she has been quite attached to from the start, as evidenced by the comments she made in her 1953 Christmas Day broadcast during her months-long Commonwealth tour as the new queen:
“As I travel across the world today I am ever more deeply impressed with the achievement and the opportunity which the modern Commonwealth presents. The Commonwealth bears no resemblance to the Empires of the past. It is an entirely new conception, built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty and the desire for freedom and peace.”
During the Queen’s tenure, the Commonwealth has grown from eight countries to 54. She has made more than 200 visits to Commonwealth countries, visiting every member except for Cameroon (which joined in 1995) and Rwanda (the most recent addition, joining in 2009), according to the royal family’s website.
“I feel enormously proud of what the Commonwealth has achieved, and all of it within my lifetime,” she said in her remark to open its 2015 heads of government meeting in Malta.
So will Charles be the next head of the Commonwealth?
Yes, but the role is not a hereditary one, meaning it is not a given that the reigning monarch will become head of the Commonwealth. There were some rumblings ahead of the 2018 leadership meeting that some members weren’t crazy about the idea of Prince Charles taking over one day, according to Reuters. The Queen then made an extraordinary appeal, asking directly that Charles be made head:
“It is my sincere wish that the Commonwealth will continue to offer stability and continuity for future generations, and will decide that one day the Prince of Wales should carry on the important work started by my father in 1949.”
The membership quickly caved, issuing a statement that Charles would become head of the Commonwealth when the time comes. However, similar questions are likely to arise around Prince William’s role in the Commonwealth. I would argue that a leader who is not the monarch might help ease the feeling that the Commonwealth is, as the Guardian op-ed columnist Afua Hirsch called it: “British Empire 2.0.”
The Queen receives Commonwealth Secretary-General, Baroness Patricia Scotland, at Windsor Castle in 2018. (Photo via i-Images / Polaris)
Who else is involved in the Commonwealth leadership?
Rt Hon Patricia Scotland QC has been the Commonwealth Secretary-General since 2015. Born in Dominica and raised in London, she is the sixth person to hold that position and the first woman. Trained as a lawyer, Patricia is the first Black woman to be appointed Deputy High Court Judge, Recorder and Master of Middle Temple and the first woman attorney general. (You can read her full biography on the Commonwealth website.)
Commonwealth Secretary-Generals can serve a maximum of two four-year terms.
What roles did Harry and Meghan have in the Commonwealth?
The Commonwealth was a big focus of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during their time as senior working royals — their potential within the Commonwealth was seen as a huge asset (and their departure is seen as a significant loss). In April 2018, a month before their wedding, the Queen named Harry as Commonwealth Youth Ambassador, which Reuters described as “his highest-profile public role to date.” Harry and Meghan were later named president and vice president of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, which champions young leaders within the Commonwealth.
“Both of us have passions for wanting to make change, change for good, and with lots of young people running around the Commonwealth, that’s where we’re going to spend most of our time hopefully,” Harry said in their engagement interview. Meghan’s first official event with the Queen was at the Commonwealth Day Service in 2018. And on her wedding day, the duchess had symbols of the Commonwealth embroidered into her epic wedding veil (much like the Queen had done with her coronation gown).
“[Harry was] really over the moon to find out that I would make this choice for our day,” she said in the HBO documentary Queen of the World, adding that her new relatives have an “appreciation for the fact that we understand how important this is for us and the role that we play, and the work that we’re going to continue to do within the Commonwealth countries.”
How have the Sussexes spoken about the colonial roots of the Commonwealth?
Following the murder of George Floyd in the early summer of 2020, Harry and Meghan appeared at a Queen’s Commonwealth Trust event and spoke about the importance of reckoning with Britain’s colonial past.
“When you look across the Commonwealth, there is no way that we can move forward unless we acknowledge the past,” Harry said, according to CNN. “So many people have done such an incredible job of acknowledging the past and trying to right those wrongs, but I think we all acknowledge there is so much more still to do.”
“We’re going to have to be a little uncomfortable right now, because it’s only in pushing through that discomfort that we get to the other side of this and find the place where a high tide raises all ships,” Meghan said. “Equality does not put anyone on the back foot, it puts us all on the same footing – which is a fundamental human right.”
Harry and Meghan arrive for the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020, their last event as senior working royals. (Photo via Getty Images)
How has Harry and Meghan’s departure played out in the Commonwealth?
The Sussexes officially stepped down from their royal duties, including their roles within the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, in February 2021 (following the 12-month review that was part of the terms of their departure). But it was their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey the next month — in which they shared that a member of the royal family had expressed “concerns” over the color of Archie’s skin — that caused a particularly strong reaction among Commonwealth countries.
“It was expected the interview would expose more rifts in the royal family. Now it seems to be risking divisions within the ‘family’ of the Commonwealth,” wrote the Associated Press. Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull used it as evidence that the country should cut ties with the monarchy. “After the end of the queen’s reign, that is the time for us to say: OK, we’ve passed that watershed,” he said in a television interview. “Do we really want to have whoever happens to be the head of state, the king or queen of the U.K., automatically our head of state?’”
Peter Wickham, a Barbadian political analyst, spoke to the Guardian following the interview and in the midst of Barbados’ own transition to a republic:
“The recent crisis has indeed highlighted attitudes within the royal family that many of us would find offensive and does help to foment the anti-royal sentiment. There are many among us who consider this sentiment to be a reflection of the broader British society and the Brexit discussions, which reveal a British preoccupation with their ‘specialness’ does not help.”
What happened in Barbados and will other Commonwealth countries follow?
Last November, Barbados removed the Queen as its head of state and became a republic. (The last country to do this was Mauritius in 1992.) Prince Charles attended the overnight ceremony in Bridgetown, in which Dame Sandra Mason became president. In his remarks, the heir to the throne acknowledged the “appalling atrocity of slavery,” according to the BBC. From at home in the United Kingdom, the Queen sent her “warmest good wishes” for “happiness, peace and prosperity in the future.”
There has been talk that other Commonwealth countries, particularly island nations, could follow in Barbados’ footsteps and remove the queen. Amid the speculation, it is no coincidence that the Platinum Jubilee Tours happening later this month and into next are focused on Caribbean nations where Her Majesty remains head of state. William and Kate will travel to Belize, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. Then the Queen’s youngest son, Edward, and his wife, Sophie, will visit Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In mid-April, the Queen’s daughter, Anne, will make a trip to Papua New Guinea.
So why does the Commonwealth still exist?
I think it’s notable that although Barbados removed the Queen, it chose to remain as a member of the Commonwealth. Prime Minister Mia Mottley delivered an address to parliament shortly before it became a republic, in which Reuters reported she said: “We look forward to continuing the relationship with the British monarch.”
Why is that? A National Geographic article about the decision summed it up as follows: “In an increasingly globalized world, it’s critical to retain allies—even their former colonizer—through organizations like the Commonwealth of Nations.”
And it appears that, even with the immensely problematic roots, members of the Commonwealth see it as either necessary or express a sort of ambivalence about it. A 2018 piece in the Economist about the Commonwealth cited a poll that asked “if respondents would be ‘sorry or appalled if your country left the Commonwealth.’ People in its poorer members were likeliest to answer ‘yes;’ those in Britain, Australia and Canada tended to indifference. Few knew much about it.”
Here is the bit from that piece that has stuck with me the most: “It is unlikely to die. It is an extraordinary network of disparate peoples bound by an imperial history that seems, even among former subject peoples, to inspire nostalgia as much as resentment.”
* * *
But mostly: We can expect to see Prince Charles and Camilla on Monday at the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, along with Will, Kate, and other members of the royal family. The Queen will not be in attendance but she is scheduled to deliver her annual address.
Having spent a few days immersed in all-things Commonwealth, I both better understand its purpose and see it as even more problematic. I have spent a lot of time thinking about Harry and Meghan, too, and what they could have done to promote the royal family’s interests in the Commonwealth. What a missed opportunity.
I’m so curious to hear what you think. Is the Commonwealth in its current form useful? Is there a way it can be changed to make it more relevant? Or do you think it should be dismantled entirely? Please hit “Join the discussion” at the bottom of this email and add your thoughts in the comments.
* * *
Like what you are reading? It would mean so much if you forwarded this email to a friend! The So Many Thoughts newsletter comes out twice a week, with royal coverage on Fridays/Saturdays and more general style stories on Tuesdays. You can subscribe here, follow along on Instagram at @EHolmes, and check out my book, HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style. Thank you so much for supporting my work.