Lord Howell of Guildford PC

President, Royal Commonwealth Society

Lord Howell was appointed minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Offce (FCO) in May 2010.

Here, he talks frankly about the benefts Britain receives from Commonwealth membership, the Rule of Law and Human Rights.

What benefts does Britain receive by being a member of the Commonwealth?

This is a big and very central ques on. What we get is renewed and invigorated links within a changing international landscape.

What do I mean by that? I mean that 60 percent of the world’s GNP now lies outside the OECD area. I mean that while we may remain good friends with the United States and good Europeans in the European Union, the wider world outside – what the Foreign Secretary calls “the beyond” – is becoming the great new area for our markets and our exports.

We have to have access to the gigantic emerging economies of Asia, Africa and Latin n America.

To get that access we need to use every conceivable linkage and network we can, and of course one of the wonderful readymade networks which we have to hand is the Commonwealth itself.

And what does Britain give to the Commonwealth?

We give a very sustainable aid programme. We give foreign investment, although we also take foreign investment from the Commonwealth – it is a two-way process.

We give technical skills. We support the development of our core principles and values: building democracy and upholding human rights, upholding the rule of law and general social and economic and cultural development.

We give all that we can from our culture and language through the British Council, the World Service [and] the BBC. We have much to give, but it’s not all give, it’s take as well.

Some of the richest and fastest growing countries in the world are now members of the Commonwealth. Countries with vast sovereign funds are members of the Commonwealth – we’re going to need their funds, just as in the past they needed British funds.

With the Arab Spring, we’ve witnessed a fowering of democracy in North Africa.

Do you think the Commonwealth should be actively seeking to encourage the membership of countries like Tunisia and Egypt which could beneft from joining the association?

I think the Commonwealth should take a very sympathetic interest in those countries that say they want to join but it shouldn’t go out and solicit membership. It should say, “We are a group of countries with strong principles and a strong determination to uphold these principles.

If you are interested in joining, then we will certainly consider that matter sympathetically.”

The EPG has recommended the appointment of a Commissioner for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights. What is Britain’s position on this and do you think that it’s likely that there will be a Commissioner?

There are huge forces at work. In business, in civil society, in local government, amongst the youth of the Commonwealth – tens of millions of them – and amongst many other trans-Commonwealth organisations, [there is] a tremendous demand for reform and a stronger platform.

The message coming to all governments is let there be a stronger assertion of standards, a stronger pattern of advice and support for upholding democracy principles and the rule of law. Those standards are the ones that create the kind of trust and the kind of network of principles in which everything else is going to operate, including business.

It’s a bottom-up demand. Now the EPG understood that, made a thorough report and believed that these principles needed strengthening. In this they were running parallel with the report from the Commonwealth Ministers Ac on Group (CMAG).

But the EPG went further and proposed some institutional changes – a Charter and a Commissioner for Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights. That has been debated, [but] exactly how this is going to be expressed I don’t know.

I do know that there’s universal acceptance that there needs to be a strengthening of the methods for maintaining standards in the Commonwealth.

That is agreed. In what way this is turned into institutional changes is yet to be agreed.

Commonwealth heads of government agreed to postpone the decision to appoint a Commission for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights pending a further evaluation of the role itself.

And Britain’s position on the Commissioner?

Our position is we think the further we can go on this the better. We like the EPG report and our ideal would be to get the institutional changes.

In Britain, we are not impatient and we see it’s necessary to go forward step by step.

If the recommendation for a Commissioner isn’t accepted would you support a strengthening of the Secretary General’s voice and a widening of CMAG’s mandate so that it can intervene to prevent countries violating Commonwealth values and principles?

I repeat my concept of a step-by-step advance. We think those are directionally the right moves, yes.

This doesn’t mean to say that we’ll be necessarily satisfed with it.

There are heads of government who are creating pressures for reform.