Civil Society Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Commonwealth Oral History Project

Witness Seminar – The Commonwealth Secretariat, Economics and Development, and Global Politics

by evanamusoke | Jan 6, 2017 | Australia, CHOGM, Civil Society, Commonwealth Foundation, Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), Commonwealth Secretariat, Constitutional Change, Decolonisation, Democracy, Development, Diplomacy, Education, Elections, Fiji, Human Rights, India, Media, Mozambique, New Zealand, Queen, Small States, South Africa, United Kingdom, United Nations, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

The Witness Seminar was held on 24th March 2014 at the Australian National University in Canberra. Download Witness Seminar. Programme Session 1: The Commonwealth Secretariat Session 2: The Commonwealth, Economics and Development Session 3: The Commonwealth in Global...

Interview with Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin

by chrismoffat | Jul 23, 2015 | ASEAN, Canada, Civil Society, Commonwealth Secretariat, Development, Diplomacy, Human Rights, Law, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom

Download Interview Transcript. Biography: Ariffin, Noor Farida. 1947- . Born in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Malaysia. Educated in law at the Inns of the Courts, London, 1970. Joined the Judicial and Legal Service, Malaysia, in 1971, where she served for 25 years. Director...

Interview with Rashleigh Jackson

by chrismoffat | Jul 21, 2015 | Civil Society, Commonwealth Secretariat, Diplomacy, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Namibia, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Queen, South Africa, United Kingdom, United Nations, USA, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

Download Interview Transcript. Biography: Jackson, Rashleigh Edond. 1929- . Born in New Amsterdam, British Guiana. Joined the civil service in 1949. Received scholarship to study in the United Kingdom, 1954. Educated at the University of London and University of...

Interview with Carl Dundas

by chrismoffat | Jul 21, 2015 | Apartheid, Barbados, Civil Society, Commonwealth Secretariat, Democracy, Development, Elections, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Technical Assistance, Zambia, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

Download Interview Transcript. Biography: Dundas, Carl. Educated in London and called to the bar at Gray’s Inn. Appointed Legal Counsel and Director of Legal Division of the Caribbean Community, 1973. Technical Legal Advisor to Joint Selection Committee on...

Interview with Mark Robinson

by chrismoffat | Jul 15, 2015 | Apartheid, CHOGM, Civil Society, Commonwealth Secretariat, Development, Diplomacy, Education, Elections, Falklands Islands, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Grenada, Kenya, Malta, Namibia, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Queen, Rhodesia (see also Zimbabwe), South Africa, Technical Assistance, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Kingdom, United Nations, Zambia, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

Download Interview Transcripts: Part One (17 July 2013); Part Two (8 August 2013); Appendix One (on Belize). Biography: Robinson, Mark. 1946- . Born in Bristol, England. Educated at the University of Oxford. Special Assistant, United Nations Emergency Relief Operation...

Interview with Madhuri Bose

by chrismoffat | Jul 13, 2015 | Bangladesh, Cameroon, CHOGM, Civil Society, Commonwealth Secretariat, Democracy, Development, Education, Elections, Human Rights, India, Kenya, Mozambique, United Nations

Download Interview Transcript. Biography: Bose, Madhuri. Educated at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Positions with the Centre for Human Rights, Geneva, late 1970s, and with the International Labour Organisation, United...

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Definitioner

Aruna Roy

Aruna Roy (b.1946) is an Indian political figure and social activist who founded the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana (Workers and Peasants Strength Union) in 1987. Roy has been a leading campaigner in the Right to Information movement in India, and was appointed in 2004 to the National Advisory Council.

Richard Bourne

Richard Bourne (b.1940) is a British journalist, writer and human rights advocate who has acted as Deputy Director of the Commonwealth Institute (1983-89), Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (1990-92) and Head of the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit (1999-2005). He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Secretary of the Ramphal Institute, and was a correspondent for The Guardian and deputy editor of the London Evening Standard.

Maja Daruwala

Maja Daruwala is an Indian barrister and human rights advocate who has served as Executive Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) since 1996. Daruwala previously worked as Ford Foundation Programme Officer for South Asia.

Dawda Jawara

Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara (b.1924) is a Gambian politician who served as his country’s first Prime Minister (1962-70) and, following the Gambia’s establishment as Republic, as President from 1970 to 1994. Jawara led the People’s Progressive Party until he was overthrown in a military coup in 1994.

Eleni Stamiris

Eleni Stamiris is a Greek policy advisor and consultant who served as Director of Gender and Youth Affairs in the Commonwealth Secretariat from 1993 to 1999. She was previously Director of the Mediterranean Women’s Study Institute (1981-90) and later Director of the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (1999-2001).

MN Venkatachaliah

Manepalli Narayana Rao Venkatachaliah (b.1929) is an Indian jurist who served as Chief Justice of India from 1993 to 1994. Venkatachaliah had become Judge of the Supreme Court of India in 1987, and later served as Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission from 1996 to 1998.

Jyoti Basu

Jyotirindra Basu (1914-2010) was an Indian political figure who served as Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000. Basu was a central figure in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from the time of its founding in 1964, remaining a member of its Politburo until 2008.

Soli Sorabjee

Soli Jehangir Sorabjee (b.1930) is an Indian jurist who served as Attorney General of India from 1998 to 2004. He was previously Solicitor General of India from 1977 to 1980, and had been a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India from 1971.

Mustafizur Rahman

Mustafizur Rahman (1940-1999) was a Bangladeshi diplomat who served as his country’s Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 1999. Rahman was previously High Commissioner to Malaysia (1981-84), Ambassador to Myanmar (1984-87) and Ambassador to the USSR and China.

Farooq Sobhan

Farooq Sobhan (b.1940) is a Bangladeshi diplomat who served as Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh from 1995 to 1997. He was previously Ambassador to China (1987-90), and High Commissioner to Malaysia (1984-87) and India (1992-95). Sobhan was candidate for the position of Commonwealth Secretary General in 1999.

Paul LaRose-Edwards

Paul LaRose-Edwards is a Canadian diplomat and human rights specialist who in 1996 founded CANADEM, an NGO focused on responding to rapid-onset humanitarian emergencies and disasters. LaRose-Edwards had previously worked for Amnesty International and the government of Canada. He was Representative of the UN Human Rights Commissioner in Indonesia and spent four years heading the Human Rights Unit at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Pera Wells

Pera Wells is an Australian diplomat who established the Human Rights Unit in the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1985. She had previously worked on human rights issues with the United Nations in New York and set up the Human Rights Section of Australia’s Foreign Affairs department in 1984. Wells was later Secretary General of the World Federation of United Nations Associations (2006-09) and Vice President of the Australian Council for Human Rights Education (2010- ).

Peter Davies

Roger Peter Havard Davies (1919-1993) was a human rights activist and cultural ambassador who served as Director of the Anti-Slavery Society from 1980 to 1987. He had previously worked for the British Council (1949 -80), holding postings in Hungary, Israel, Malaysia, Finland, Chile and India.

Chuks Ihekaibeya

Columbus Chukwujindu ‘Chuks’ Ihekaibeya (1942-2014) was a Sudanese civil servant who served the Commonwealth Secretariat as Chief Programme Officer, Political Affairs Division, and as Special Assistant to Secretary General of the Commonwealth Chief Emeka Anyaoku.

Rumman Faruqi

Rumman Faruqi is an economist and international trade advisor who served as Director of the Economic Affairs Division, Commonwealth Secretariat, from 1993 to 2001. Faruqi was previously a Senior Economist at UNCTAD (1972-79), a Consultant at the United Nations (1982-87) and Senior Advisor to the World Bank (1987-98).

CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency)

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) was the primary organisation administering Canada’s foreign aid programmes in developing countries. It was established in 1968 under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and reported to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister for International Cooperation. In 2013, CIDA was dissolved by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and its functions incorporated into the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is an international, non-governmental organisation established in 1987 to support the implementation of the Harare Declaration in the Commonwealth of Nations. It provides thematic human rights reports to every Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. In 1993, its headquarters moved from London to New Delhi, India.

Political Affairs Division

The Political Affairs Division (PAD) is the section of the Commonwealth Secretariat that coordinates activities between the Commonwealth, its member country governments and partner international organisations. It focuses its work on the prevention or resolution of political conflict at the invitation of a member country, and also supports the development of democratic processes and institutions.

Senate House

The Senate House, University of London, is home to the University’s Central Academic Bodies, the Vice-Chancellor’s Offices, and the various research institutes of the School of Advanced Study. The Institute of Commonwealth Studies has been based in Senate House since 2009.

Marlborough House

Marlborough House is a 17^th century mansion in the City of Westminster, central London, which has served as the headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat since 1953.

Stuart Mole

Stuart Mole is a British political figure who joined the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1984 as Special Assistant to the Secretary-General. He was Director of the Secretary-General’s Office from 1990 to 2000, and Director-General of the Royal Commonwealth Society from 2000 to 2009.

Washington Consensus

The term ‘Washington Consensus’ is used to describe a set of economic policy prescriptions that became standard practice in the 1980s for several Washington-based institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in their dealings with developing countries. These prescriptions include policies of deregulation, the opening of national economies to foreign trade and investment, and the facilitation of market forces domestically, priorities which are seen to be representative of an emerging ‘neo-liberal’ tendency in the era.

Datuk Farida Ariffin (Datuk Noor Farida)

Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin is a distinguished Malysian diplomat who served the Commonwealth Secretariat as Director of the Women and Development Programme (1988-1993). Farida has held numerous positions in the Administrative and Diplomatic Service in Malaysia and, in 2000, was appointed Ambassador to the Netherlands, a position she held until 2007.

Carter Center

The Carter Center in an NGO that aims to advance human rights. It was founded by the former US President, Jimmy Carter, and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, in 1982.

Max Gaylard

Maxwell Gaylard (b. 1946). Australian diplomat. He was Director of Political/International Affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London in the 1990s.

Reg Austin

Professor Reginald Austin is a Zimbabwean academic who served the Commonwealth Secretariat as Director of Legal and Constitutional Affairs from 1993 to 1998. He had previously been Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of Zimbabwe (1982-92) and Chief Electoral Officer of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (1992-93). In 1994, he was Director of the Electoral Component, UNOMSA (South Africa).

Jeremy Pope

Jeremy Pope (1938-2012). New Zealand-born activist. In 1980 he was appointed director of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division. In 1993 he co-founded the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International.

CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency)

Canadian International Development Agency. Established in 1968, it was responsible for administering foreign aid to developing countries. In 2013 it was merged with the Department of Foreign Affairs, becoming Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development.

United Nations. Major international organisation, founded in 1945.

Kris Srinivasan

Khrishnan Srinivasan (b.1937). Indian politician and diplomat, Foreign Secretary (1994-1995), Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General (1995-2002).

Anthony Siaguru

Anthony Siaguru (1946-2004). Papua New Guinea lawyer and diplomat.

Kashmir issue

The long-running dispute between India and Pakistan over control of Kashmir, a region divided during the Partition of India in 1947.

ILO

International Labour Organisation. The United Nations agency for issues connected with labour rights, originally founded in 1919

International Labour Organisation (ILO)

International Labour Organisation. The United Nations agency for issues connected with labour rights, originally founded in 1919

Harare Declaration

The Harare Commonwealth Declaration of 1991 set out the Commonwealth's principles and values, including membership criteria. Click here to read the Declaration in full.

EPG

Eminent Persons Group. A group of well-known individuals chosen by the Commonwealth to research a specific issue. The 1985 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting appointed an EPG to report on apartheid in South Africa, published in 1986 as Mission to South Africa. A second EPG was appointed in 2009 and tasked to produce a report on Commonwealth reform for 2011.

Commonwealth Secretariat

The Commonwealth Secretariat is the principal inter-governmental body of the Commonwealth, responsible for promoting cooperation between members. Founded in 1965.

CMAG

Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group. Established by Commonwealth Heads of Government in 1995, the CMAG upholds the terms of the Harare Declaration.

Commonwealth Foundation

The Commonwealth Foundation is a Commonwealth organisation founded in 1965 to promote the growth of professional organisations and exchange of skills, and now pursuing a broader developmental agenda.

CFTC (Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation)

The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation (CFTC) is an organisation administered by the Commonwealth Secretariat that delivers technical assistance to Commonwealth member countries. A mutual and voluntary fund, it was established in 1971.

Cold War

A period of ideological tension from around 1945 to 1991 between capitalist nations led by the USA and communist nations led by the USSR.

CHOGM

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Every two years Commonwealth heads of government meet to discuss global and Commonwealth issues, with the aim of promoting common initiatives.

Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007). Pakistani Prime Minister from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996.

Apartheid

A system of legally enforced racial segregation implemented and upheld by the National Party in South Africa from 1948 – 1994

Emeka Anyaoku

Emeka Anyaoku (b. 1933). Nigerian diplomat. Served as Head of the Commonwealth International Affairs Division (1973-1977), Assistant Secretary General (1977-1979); Deputy Secretary General (1979-1991); Secretary General (1991-2001).

Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM)

The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), originally known as the Boycott Movement, was a British activist organisation founded in 1959 to oppose white minority rule in South Africa. It continued to run until 1994, supporting economic and academic sanctions of South Africa and cooperating with other international organisations like the UN.

Mrs Thatcher (Margaret Thatcher)

Margaret Thatcher (1926-2013). British politician and Prime Minister (1979-1990).

Witness Seminar – The Commonwealth Secretariat, Economics and Development, and Global Politics

Interview with Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin

Interview with Rashleigh Jackson

Interview with Carl Dundas

Interview with Mark Robinson

Interview with Madhuri Bose

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