Harare_declaration

The Harare Commonwealth Declaration was a declaration of the Commonwealth of Nations, setting out the Commonwealth\'s core principles and values, detailing the Commonwealth\'s membership criteria, and redefining and reinforcing its purpose. The Declaration was issued in Harare, Zimbabwe, on 20 October 1991, during the twelfth Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.Harare Commonwealth Declaration. Commonwealth Secretariat (20 October 1991). Retrieved on 2007-07-25. It reaffirmed the political principles laid out in the Singapore Declaration of twenty years before, and (along with the Singapore Declaration) is considered one of the two most important documents to the Commonwealth\'s uncodified constitution.Key Declarations. Commonwealth Secretariat. Retrieved on 2007-07-25.

The Declaration reaffirms those principles to which it was committed in 1971: world peace and support for the United Nations; individual liberty and egalitarianism; opposition to racism; opposition to colonialism; the eradication of poverty, ignorance, disease, and economic inequality; free trade; institutional cooperation; multilateralism; and the rejection of international coercion.Singapore Declaration of Commonwealth Principles 1971. Commonwealth Secretariat (22 January 1971). Retrieved on 2007-07-25. It also emphasises in particular a few of the principles and values mentioned in Singapore as integral to the Commonwealth project:

At Harare, the Heads of Government dedicated themselves to applying these principles to then-current issues, such as the end of the Cold War, the near-completion of decolonisation, and the impending end of the Apartheid government in South Africa. In this sense, it is considered to have set the Commonwealth on a new course, distinct from that followed before.

The next part of the declaration details the purpose of the Commonwealth, and the activities in which it ought to engage to further the values expounded.

Critical to the document is the removal of a reference to the opposition to international coercion, which had been included in the Singapore Declaration.Williams, Paul D. (July 2005). "Blair\'s Britain and the Commonwealth". The Round Table 94 (380): pp. 381–391.  The implication at Singapore was that not even the Commonwealth itself had any right to enforce its other core values, as they could only be enforced by using coercive powers. This apparent conflict was resolved at Harare, and further clarified by the Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme, which clearly mandated the Commonwealth to concern itself with its members\' internal situations.

Footnotes

External links

• Full text of the Harare Declaration

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