Invite: Hugh Segal-Commonwealth

23 May 2011

The South African Institute of International Affairs in conjunction with the Canadian High Commission in Pretoria cordially invites you to a discussion forum led by Senator Hugh Segal, Member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group on 'Commonwealth renewal: will the organisation remain relevant?'

Date: Monday 23 May 2011

Time: 10:00–12:00, followed by a buffet lunch

Venue: Villa Sterne, 212 Johan Rissik Drive, Waterkloof Ridge, Pretoria

RSVP: Ndumi Nqunqa

Tel: (011) 339 2021

Fax: (011) 339 2154

Email: Nondumiso.Nqunqa@wits.ac.za

The Eminent Persons Group was established at the initiative of Commonwealth Heads of Government at their meeting in Port of Spain in November 2009. Its mandate is to explore and recommend ways, in the context of promoting the Commonwealth’s values and principles, that would sharpen the impact, strengthen the networks and raise the profile of the Commonwealth to ensure it “will remain relevant to its times and people in future”.

At the end of their fourth meeting in London on 21 and 22 March, the group stated: “The Commonwealth is in danger of becoming irrelevant and unconvincing as a values-based association” and “to safeguard against this danger we will recommend to leaders the adoption of proposals that will strengthen the Commonwealth, both as an association of governments and of peoples.”

While its report is not yet complete, the group is inviting comments by 15 June 2011 from interested parties on the direction of its report before it is finalised and submitted to Heads of Government for their collective consideration in Perth, Australia, in October 2011.

Senator Segal is visiting South Africa as part of the outreach by the Eminent Persons Group in this regard.

Hugh Segal joined the Canadian Senate in 2005, after four decades of public service which included Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Canada, Associate Cabinet Secretary (Ontario) for Federal-Provincial Affairs and Policies and Priorities, Legislative Assistant to the Leader of the Opposition (Ottawa), and President of the independent Institute for Research on Public Policy.

He chairs the Special Senate Committee on Anti-Terrorism and is a former Chair and present member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. He headed a NATO parliamentary delegation to Washington and is a former Chair (Calgary 2004) of the annual Canada-UK Colloquium.

Senator Segal is a Senior Fellow at the Queen’s Schools of Policy Studies and Business, the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute and a member of the Working Group on National Security at Cranfield University’s Centre for Security Sector Management. He chaired the Canadian Institute for Strategic Studies and was the founding Vice-Chair (Research) of the Canadian International Council. He sits on the Council of the International Institute for Democratic and Electoral Assistance (Stockholm) and sat on the Council of the International Institute of Strategic Studies (London).