Commonwealth leader summit ends

World

Commonwealth leader summit ends

Close

The three-day meeting of 53 Commonwealth nation leaders came to a close on Sunday in Australia.

30 October,2011 02:35 pm

Commonwealth nation leaders insisted Sunday that they had made sweeping progress at their biennial summit, despite failing to agree on a key human rights reform recommended by a group that questioned the forums very relevance.Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who had pushed for the appointment of a human rights watchdog during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting or CHOGM said the forum had still made progress by strengthening the role the Commonwealth can play when dealing with nations accused of human rights abuses.This will provide for an earlier and more constructive engagement by the Commonwealth and the Secretary General where countries are veering from the path of democracy, Gillard told reporters in the Western Australia city of Perth, where the three-day meeting of 53 Commonwealth nation leaders came to a close on Sunday.A report by the forums Eminent Persons Group, which was set up during the last summit to help raise the Commonwealths profile, had recommended the leaders appoint a human rights commissioner. The forum has been hit with repeated questions of its effectiveness in preventing human rights abuses, particularly in Sri Lanka, which is slated to host the next summit.Sri Lanka has been under intense pressure from human rights groups and countries including the U.S. to investigate allegations of possible war crimes during the final months of its 26-year war with Tamil Tiger separatists, which ended in 2009.Gillard said Australia supported appointing a human rights watchdog, but several other countries had raised concerns. The prime minister said a group of Commonwealth foreign ministers would examine the proposal further and report their findings to the leaders at a later date.The forum did give one of its internal groups more power to intervene earlier when Commonwealth nations are accused of human rights abuses or undemocratic behavior. Previously, the forum was restricted to either suspending or expelling such countries from the bloc.