The Commonwealth People’s Forum enables civil society to voice its wants and needs to Commonwealth leaders. This year, in an attempt ensure that it is well heard, the People’s Forum is doing things differently
Walking past the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, visitors are always struck by the placards, flags and tents. Protesters are often bedded down not just for the night but for the foreseeable future as they make various demands of their political representatives.
Even in a well-developed, stable democracy like the UK, citizens need to have a voice; they should not just follow blindly the direction that their leaders set for them. Looking at those tents – which remained there throughout the recent harsh winter, covered in blankets and cardboard to seal in every ounce of warmth – you realise that people really have a strong desire to be heard. And it’s not just that they want to have to be heard; really it is a fundamental need.
Citizens need to tell their leaders what they want. They need to bridge the gap between what is laid down in law and what exists in reality. They need to make that bridge stronger in order to let people walk across it freely in both directions. Strong bridges equal strong societies. And public access to governments should mean an understanding of rights and challenges, and ultimately a more fully functioning society.
When the Commonwealth leaders meet in Perth, Western Australia, in October 2011 – behind closed doors – how will they know what issues their citizens are concerned about? And how will they engage with those issues? The answer is the Commonwealth People’s Forum.
Since 1991, civil society representatives have convened at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM), with the aim of influencing leaders as they retreat into their deliberations. Held in the days immediately preceding the Summit, the People’s Forum brings together hundreds of non-governmental groups from the association’s 54 member countries to seek agreement and action on key issues facing Commonwealth people. Over the course of four days, assemblies cover topics such as climate change, culture, education, the financial crisis, food security, gender, health and human rights.
In the year and a half leading up to CHOGM, the Commonwealth Foundation works with civil society organisations from across the Commonwealth to set up regional and national consultations, accept submissions, debate issues and generate ideas, in order to formulate a statement that sets out everything that civil society needs and wants, in a way that their governments will understand. On the final day of the People’s Forum, this statement – embodying the collective voice of all civil society groups – is issued directly to CHOGM.
This year, the People’s Forum is going to be a little different. More emphasis is being placed on the run up to the event in order to produce the statement well ahead of CHOGM, in time for Commonwealth foreign ministers to consider it at their meeting in New York, in September. In this way, civil society is giving itself the best chance possible to have a proper constructive dialogue with the leaders attending the summit. By presenting their statement in September, there is more than a month for ministers to digest its findings and solutions and take them into consideration as they set the Commonwealth’s agenda for the next two years.
The People’s Forum is the biggest and only event of its kind in the Commonwealth. It matters and it is necessary because citizens have a right to change and they have a right to ask for change, they just need the mechanism with which to do it. And the Commonwealth People’s Forum provides just such a mechanism.
