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Lanka in or out: Crucial CMAG meeting on Friday
View(s):Secretariat gearing up for Colombo summit despite venue-shift call
The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) meets on Friday (April 26) in London to discuss issues related to the CHOGM summit in Sri Lanka in November.
Though a venue change is not an item on the agenda, diplomatic sources in London say there was nothing to preclude the issue coming up under “any other business”. No member country of the Commonwealth has formally called for a venue change, and the Commonwealth Secretariat was proceeding with arrangements to hold CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) in Sri Lanka as scheduled.
Meanwhile, the 18th Commonwealth Law Conference, a conference of Commonwealth Lawyers and Judges, attended by 27 Chief Justices in Cape Town, South Africa earlier this week passed a resolution asking CMAG “to place Sri Lanka on the agenda of its next meeting on 26 April, 2013 and suspend it from the Councils of the Commonwealth for serious and persistent violations of the Commonwealth fundamental values”.
The resolution that was passed added that “this suspension would not preclude the people of Sri Lanka from participating in non-governmental Commonwealth activities”.
The resolution also called on the members of the Commonwealth to reconsider the holding of CHOGM in Sri Lanka and blamed the Government for its role in impeaching the sitting Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake “in defiance of the judgments of the highest courts in Sri Lanka”.
Endorsing the move during his closing address was Igor Judge, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. The resolution was unanimously adopted.
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