A commitment to human rights is a core principle of the Commonwealth. Its importance is made clear in the Commonwealth Charter and other Declarations, such as the 1991 Harare Declaration and the 1971 Singapore Declaration of Commonwealth Principles, which were agreed by Commonwealth member states. In addition, there are numerous international and regional human rights principles, commitments and protocols that the majority of CPA Branches have pledged their commitment to, for example the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
In recent years, there have been important initiatives seeking to strengthen the work of parliamentarians in the promotion and protection of human rights both within the Commonwealth and in the wider international community. The Preamble to the CPA Constitution highlights our shared commitment to working together “irrespective of gender, race, religion or culture” and to have “respect for the rule of law and individual rights and freedoms”.
It is important that the CPA’s work on human rights is taken forward with support from all nine Regions and that we take the opportunity to learn from examples of best practice including the work of Parliamentary Committees and cross-party groups on human rights in many Commonwealth jurisdictions. We can also learn from the work of the three CPA networks –Small Branches, the CWP and the CPwD. Human rights are, of course, universal but a focus on human rights is especially important for citizens and communities that are vulnerable or marginalised due to discrimination.
Find out more about the CPA's human rights initiatives below.
The CPA Working Group on Human Rights was formally established by the CPA International Executive Committee in March 2021 at its Mid-Year Meeting.
The purpose of the CPA Working Group is:
to review the CPA’s work on human rights and explore how best to strengthen the implementation of our shared commitments.
The group consists of one representative from each of the nine CPA Regions.
The current Chairperson is: Hon. Akierra Missick (Turks and Caicos Islands).
Between 2014 and 2016, the CPA and the Commonwealth Secretariat held a series of seminars on “The Role of Parliamentarians in the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights” which resulted in three regional declarations:
The implementation of these three Declarations provides a powerful foundation upon which we can build upon at a Branch level, a Regional level and Globally.
This special issue of The Parliamentarian focuses on human rights in the modern era and celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The Parliamentarian is the Journal of Commonwealth Parliaments and is published by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
