Kamalesh Sharma, the current and fifth Secretary-General, said: “Since its inception, the Commonwealth Secretariat has had its eyes on the horizon, practical toolkits in hand, and a determination to make a positive difference in the lives of Commonwealth citizens and to add global value. In 2015 such vision and collaboration are even more greatly needed with a larger membership and pressing global challenges.
“As a diverse and increasingly connected global network, the Commonwealth brings fresh thinking and practical initiatives. Through co-operation and mutual trust, we are able to sustain and advance yet further the principles around which the Commonwealth unites, and the values we share and seek to uphold now set out with fresh clarity in the Commonwealth Charter.”
As the Commonwealth’s principal intergovernmental body, today’s Secretariat provides support on policy making, technical assistance and advisory services to its 53 member states. With a staff drawn from across the Commonwealth – based at Marlborough House in London, with support offices for small states in New York and Geneva – the Secretariat supports member states individually and collectively in advancing democracy, the rule of law, human rights, good governance, social and economic development, and respect for diversity within the values and principles-based approach reflected in the Commonwealth Charter.
Marlborough House is more than 300 years old. It has been occupied by some five Dukes and Duchesses of Marlborough, three dowager queens and three Princes of Wales, who later became kings.
Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned in 1709 to draw up the plans for Marlborough House by Sarah Churchill, the first Duchess of Marlborough, on land leased from Queen Anne. The building was completed in 1711. Descendants of the Marlboroughs occupied the house until 1817, when the lease was bought back by the Crown.
Today, the rooms of Marlborough House contain exquisite murals, tapestries, paintings and sculptures, which relay the history of the building and its various occupants over the centuries. The gardens retain their 18th-century layout of gravel paths and grass lawns.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth, made the house available for the benefit of the Commonwealth in 1959. Marlborough House is currently home to the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Foundation, and has been the venue for a number of independence negotiations and many Commonwealth conferences, including summit meetings of Commonwealth Heads of Government. Some 300 staff work there and in Quadrant House, on the opposite side of Pall Mall.
