Curtain comes down on Chogm 2022 in Rwanda
Left to right: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) Secretary General Patricia Scotland, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, and President Museveni during Chogm meeting in Kigali Rwanda on Friday. PHOTO | PPU
President Museveni might have squeezed his highlights of the official opening of the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) on Friday into a 26-second video clip, but a typically busy schedule was on the cards in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.
The Ugandan leader returned to Rwanda for the first time in more than four years on Thursday to grace an event he hosted back in 2007.
Two years after Uganda became the first country on the African continent to host the Chogm, Rwanda joined the club of mainly former British colonies.
Thirteen years after joining Mozambique in being the only countries not colonised by Britain to be admitted to the Commonwealth, Rwanda welcomed more than 5,000 delegates to its capital.
“The fact of holding this meeting in Rwanda, a new member with no historical connection to the British Empire, expresses our choice to continue reimagining the Commonwealth for a changing world,” Rwanda President Paul Kagame said on Friday, adding, “The Commonwealth we need is on the frontlines of global challenges, not on the peripheries, watching events unfold. Our special strength is to bring issues into focus that might otherwise be overlooked.”
Held under the theme, ‘Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming’, the curtain came down on the event yesterday. Mr Museveni was the only head of state wearing a face mask during Friday’s official opening ceremony. The Prince of Wales, who represented Queen Elizabeth II as Head of the Commonwealth, emphasise the need to “respond to climate change and biodiversity loss that threatens our very existence … as we build back from the pandemic that has devastated so many lives.”
Friday’s event followed four days of Commonwealth forums on youth, women, business and civil society. Before Chogm 2022 ran its course yesterday, heads of state or their representatives met in executive sessions as well as a leader’s retreat. The latter saw the dignitaries “discuss shared priorities that will shape the work programmes of the organisation.” A Youth Declaration thrashed out by 350 young people that attended the Commonwealth Youth Forum was given to the heads.
Before that Patricia Scotland QC did just about enough to retain her position as the Commonwealth secretary-general. Ms Scotland—who was not backed by her native United Kingdom—was re-elected with 27 votes against 24 of Jamaica’s Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Kamina Johnson.
“I’m determined that when the role of Secretary-General rotates to Africa, two years from now I will hand on the baton with a stronger and more effective powerful Commonwealth than ever before,” Ms Scotland, who in 2016 became the first woman to hold the Commonwealth secretary-general post, said.
Besides the election, new guidelines for Commonwealth countries to stop and prevent violence against women and girls were launched by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall on Wednesday. Globally, one in three women and one in six men have experienced a form of domestic or sexual violence in their lifetime.
“In the strength of our unity, we, the women and men of the Commonwealth, stand with victims and survivors, who, despite the temptation to hide away in silence, speak up so that others know they aren’t alone—whether in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Pacific or the Caribbean and Americas,” The Duchess of Cornwall said on Wednesday, adding, “In so doing, we have the opportunity to end gender-based violence and those laws and practices that discriminate against women. And each one of us must take personal responsibility not to let this opportunity be lost.”
