Issued by Heads of Government at
1. At
1.
advancing Commonwealth fundamental
political values;
2.
promoting sustainable development; and
3.
facilitating
consensus building.
I. Advancing Commonwealth Fundamental Political Values
A. Measures in Support of Processes and
Institutions for the Practice of the
2. The Secretariat should enhance its capacity to provide advice,
training and other forms of technical assistance to governments in promoting
the Commonwealth s fundamental political values, including:
ˇ
assistance in creating and building the
capacity of requisite institutions;
ˇ
assistance in constitutional and legal
matters, including with selecting models and initiating programmes
of democratisation;
ˇ
assistance in the electoral field,
including the establishment or strengthening of independent electoral
machinery, civic and voter education, the preparation of Codes of Conduct, and
assistance with voter registration;
ˇ
observation of elections, including
by-elections or local elections where appropriate, at the request of the member
governments concerned;
ˇ
strengthening the rule of law and
promoting the independence of the judiciary through the promotion of exchanges
among, and training of, the judiciary;
ˇ
support for good government, particularly
in the area of public service reform; and
ˇ
other
activities, in collaboration with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
and other bodies, to strengthen the democratic culture and effective
parliamentary practices.
B. Measures in Response to Violations of the
3. Where a member country is perceived to be clearly in violation
of the Harare Commonwealth Declaration, and particularly in the event of an
unconstitutional overthrow of a democratically elected government, appropri ate steps should be taken to express the
collective concern of Commonwealth countries and to encourage the rest oration
of democracy within a reasonable time frame. These include:
1.
immediate public expression by the
Secretary-General of the Commonwealth s collective disapproval of any such
infringement of the
2.
early contact by the Secretary-General
with the de facto government, followed by continued good offices and
appropriate technical assistance to facilitate an early restoration of
democracy;
3.
encouraging bilateral démarches
by member countries, especially those within the region, both to express
disapproval and to support early restoration of democracy;
4.
appointment of an envoy or a group of
eminent Commonwealth representatives where, following the Secretary-General s
contacts with the authorities concerned, such a mission is deemed beneficial in
reinforcing the Commonwealth s good offices role;
5.
stipulation of up to two years as the time
frame for the restoration of democracy where the institutions are not in place
to permit the holding of elections within, say, a maximum of six months;
6.
pending restoration of democracy,
exclusion of the government concerned from participation at ministerial-level
meetings of the Commonwealth, including CHOGMs;
7.
suspension of participation at all
Commonwealth meetings and of Commonwealth technical assistance if acceptable
progress is not recorded by the government concerned after a period of two
years; and
8.
consideration of appropriate further
bilateral and multilateral measures by all member states (e.g. limitation of
government-to-government contacts; people-to-people measures; trade
restrictions; and, in exceptional cases, suspension from the association), to
reinforce the need for change in the event that the government concerned
chooses to leave the Commonwealth and/or persists in violating the principles
of the Harare Commonwealth Declaration even after two years.
C. Mechanism for Implementation of Measures
4. We have decided to establish a Commonwealth Ministerial Action
Group on the Harare Declaration in order to deal with serious or persistent
violations of the principles contained in that Declaration. The Group will be
convened by the Secretary-General and will comprise the Foreign Ministers of
eight countries, supplemented as appropriate by one or two additional
ministerial representatives from the region concerned. It will be the Group s
task to assess the nature of the infringement and recommend measures for
collective Commonwealth action aimed at the speedy restoration of democracy and
constitutional rule.
5. The composition, terms of reference and operation of the Group
will be reviewed by us every two years.
II. Promoting Sustainable Development
6. We reaffirmed our view that the Commonwealth should continue to
be a source of help in promoting development and literacy and in eradicating
poverty, particularly as these bear on women and children. With a view to
enhancing its capacity in this area, we agreed on the following steps:
1.
to strengthen the Secretariat s capacity
for undertaking developmental work through support for its various Funds and
especially by restoring the resources of the CFTC to their 1991/92 level in
real terms; and to provide adequate resources to the Commonwealth of Learning
and to the Commonwealth Foundation;
2.
to support a greater flow of investment to
developing member countries through such schemes as the Commonwealth Private Investment
Initiative;
3.
to work for continued progress in
assisting countries with unsustainable debt burdens and to promote enhanced
multilateral concessional financial flows to
developing countries; in particular, to support new and innovative mechanisms
for relief on multilateral debt, such as the one proposed by the British
Chancellor of the Exchequer at the 1994 Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting
in Malta, and reiterated subsequently;
4.
to support the Secretariat in facilitating
the adoption by more Commonwealth countries of successful self-help schemes,
with non-governmental agencies and others acting as catalytic agents, for mobilising the energies of people in alleviating poverty;
5.
to support the efforts of small island
developing states to mitigate the effects on their development of environmental
change, natural disasters and the changing international trading system; and
6.
to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, which
threatens large parts of the younger population of many countries, recognising that the effective exploitation of economic
opportunities requires a healthy and educated population; and to provide
further resources to renew the core funding of the Southern African Network of
AIDS Organisations (SANASO), along with increased
funding for UNICEF initiatives in Southern Africa.
III. Facilitating
7. We were convinced that the Commonwealth, with its global reach
and unique experience of consensus building, was in a position to assist the
wider international community in building bridges across traditional
international divides of opinion on particular issues. We therefore agreed that
there was scope for the association to play a greater role in the search for
consensus on global issues, through:
1.
use of their governments membership of
various regional organisations and attendance at
other international gatherings to advance consensual positions agreed within
the Commonwealth;
2.
use, where appropriate, of special
missions to advance Commonwealth consensual positions and promote wider
consensus on issues of major international concern; and
3.
use
of formal and informal Commonwealth consultations in the wings of meetings of
international institutions with a view to achieving consensus on major
concerns.
12 November 1995