Commonwealth
Opinion
Lessons from the Past?
By Dr Sue Onslow, Senior Research Fellow, ICwS As an integral part of the oral history project on the Commonwealth, last week we organised a key note lecture by former Secretary General Sir Sonny Ramphal (1975-1990). This was deliberately scheduled for the eve of the...
Are South Africa’s ‘Born Free’ Generation Scaring Zuma?
By Keith Somerville President Jacob Zuma has reacted angrily to the use of the term ‘born frees’ for the generation of young South Africans who will get their first chance to vote in next year’s elections. Speaking at a voter registration drive in Atteridgeville, west...
Botswana’s Jumbo Dilemma – the expanding elephant population and the environment by Keith Somerville
Elephants are a keystone species in ecological systems, thinning woodland, creating areas of grassland or savannah and having a massive influence on the flora but also the other fauna of an area. Where they survive in Africa they are generally a threatened species –...
The Commonwealth in troubling times
by Sir Ronald Sanders KCMG AM In this Inaugural Lecture marking the 100th Anniversary of the Charter of the Bristol Commonwealth Society, Sir Ronald Sanders [1] argues that the inter-governmental Commonwealth is a diverse group that is now plagued by mistrust and...
Time to listen to the Commonwealth’s First Nations
By Richard Bourne and Helena Whall The Commonwealth’s First Nations: Rights, Status and Struggles in the run up to the UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, 2014 - Conference Programme Not since Idi Amin’s threat to attend the London Commonwealth summit in 1977,...
Reparations for Slavery: Can a claim be sustained?
By Sir Ronald Sanders KCMG AM, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and a former Caribbean diplomat In 1838, British slave owners in the English-Speaking Caribbean received £11.6 billion in today’s value as compensation for the emancipation...
The Arms Trade Treaty: Will the Commonwealth support its member states in its effective implementation?
by Helena Whall, Advocacy Officer, Oxfam On 3rd June, government and civil society representatives gathered at the UN in New York for the Signing Ceremony of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), adopted by 156 states in April. 67 nations signed the treaty on that day, one...
Why John Simpson was right to raise the issue of white poverty in South Africa
Martin Plaut, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies Keith Somerville raised several important points in his review of John Simpson’s controversial coverage of white poverty in South Africa. As a former colleague at the BBC and a fellow research...
BBC’s Simpson unites ANC and DA over the future of South Africa’s white population
Keith Somerville, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies It is hard these days to get the ANC and the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) to agree on anything. But the BBC’s World Affairs Editor, John Simpson has managed it. How? With a...
Kenyatta reportedly unhappy at constant snubs during UK visit
By Keith Somerville, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies It seems that despite being invited to London to attend the recent international conference on Somalia and meetings with UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Uhuru Kenyatta seems to think...
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