In brief: the controversy over the November 2013 Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka

In November 2009, the Commonwealth Heads of State and Government Meeting (CHOGM) agreed that its 2013 meeting should be held in Sri Lanka. This decision has faced persistent criticism since then, with organisations including Human Rights Watch arguing that the Sri Lankan Government’s human rights record is so poor that the Commonwealth should relocate the Summit elsewhere. The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Kamalesh Sharma, has rejected such calls. Sri Lanka has not to date been placed on the agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group; engagement remains the preferred option. So far, Canada is the only Commonwealth member state to say that it will definitely not be attending the Summit. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, have confirmed that they will both be attending the Summit on behalf of the British Government (Prince Charles will represent the Queen). The official British position is that they will use their presence to raise concerns about the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. Civil society groups have argued that, as a precondition for hosting the Summit, the Sri Lankan Government should have been required by the Commonwealth to meet concrete benchmarks on human rights and governance.