Time for Urgent Reform critical of Commonwealth

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OTTAWA — The Commonwealth could cease to exist unless it takes stronger, more  public stands against egregious human rights violations in its member countries,  according to a punishing 200-page report, obtained exclusively by the Ottawa  Citizen.

Some leaders of the 54-nation group have attempted to keep the report — titled Time for Urgent Reform — out of the public eye ahead of a major summit in  Australia Oct 28-30 to be attended by Commonwealth leaders including Prime  Minister Stephen Harper.

“This failure by the Commonwealth is seen as a decay that has set in to the  body of the organization and one that will occasion the association’s  irrelevance — if not its actual demise — unless it is promptly addressed,” says  the report compiled by an 11-member Eminent Persons Group which includes  Canadian Senator Hugh Segal and former Mozambique cabinet minister Graca Michel,  wife of Nelson Mandela.

Time for Urgent Reform originally was scheduled for release well in advance  of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth but an apparent dispute  among member nations over its contents has delayed the official release until  Oct. 28, the first day of the Australia summit.

Read the whole story at: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Human+rights+abuses+threaten+Commonwealth+survival+report/5576674/story.html#ixzz1bKmsozo2