Human Rights

The range of CPA programmes covers areas that also reflect the Association’s commitment to the promotion of human rights and the widest possible democratic participation in governance.

The Harare Declaration of 1991 affirmed human rights and good governance as fundamental principals of the Commonwealth and since then the CPA’s crucial role in support of these has been recognized repeatedly by each Heads of Government Meeting. In 1996, the CPA became one of the sponsor organizations of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), and they collaborate closely to further the Commonwealth’s human rights and democracy agenda.

The CHRI regularly supplies materials on human rights and resource people to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference and other meetings. The CPA has supported the attendance of Parliamentarians at CHRI Workshops, such as the one on anti-terrorism legislation held in the United Kingdom in 2003. CPA distributed CHRI’s 2001 report on Human Rights and Poverty Eradication – A Talisman for the Commonwealth, to all its Branches. In 2006 the CPA commissioned the CHRI to prepare a distance learning module on human rights.