The UK House of Lords on Thursday debated Zimbabwe’s bid to re-join the Commonwealth with some peers pressing the British government on what measures it was taking to block Harare’s re-admission. Below is the introduction to the full speech by one of them, Lord Jonathan Oates.
My Lords, I have initiated this debate to emphasise the severe damage that would be done to the reputation of the Commonwealth, to the upholding of values of democratic and human rights within the Commonwealth and to the Zimbabwe people’s struggle against tyranny, if Zimbabwe were to be readmitted while its government remains in flagrant violation of the Commonwealth Charter and of the Commonwealth’s 1991 Harare Declaration.
Reports following the visit of a Commonwealth delegation to Zimbabwe on November 12th last year, strongly suggested that Zimbabwe was on course to be readmitted, possibly even before the General Elections, due this year.
Members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Zimbabwe – of which I declare an interest as co-Chair – also came to understand that the UK government was not minded to oppose readmission, because it did not want to be isolated on the issue.
I understand the government’s sensitivity given the UK’s deeply troubled history in Zimbabwe. However, ignoring the oppression faced by the people of Zimbabwe today does not atone for past oppression inflicted under colonial rule. On the contrary, it compounds it.
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