Commonwealth Week, 2024 – Events in London

President Gordon McInally attended events in London in March to mark Commonwealth Day. Gordon chaired an event with Rotaract on Climate and Health with panellists Andrea Hull, Ashlyn Anderson, Rob Sisson and Elliott Lancaster.

On Commonwealth Day, President Gordon attended the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster with Heather McInally, Judith Diment, Dean of the Rotary Representatives to the UN and International Organisations, Aziz Memon Trustee Rotary Foundation, Dough Wills Alternate Rotary Representative to the Commonwealth and a group of Rotaractors.

56 of the world’s largest countries and smallest islands, across six oceans, continue to stand united and celebrate shared values for Commonwealth Day. This year’s Commonwealth Day and the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) theme is ‘One Resilient Common Future: Transforming our Common Wealth’.

This year’s staging is especially significant as the modern Commonwealth celebrated its 75th anniversary in April. At a Commonwealth Prime Ministers meeting in London on 26 April 1949, the London Declaration said that republics and other independent countries could be equal members of the Commonwealth. Thus, the modern Commonwealth of Nations was born.

His Majesty King Charles III, in his Commonwealth Day video message, said:

“The Commonwealth family is strongest when we are connected through friendship. As I have said before, the Commonwealth is like the wiring of a house and its people; our energy and our ideas are the current that runs through those wires.

“Together and individually, we are strengthened by sharing perspectives and experiences and by offering and borrowing the myriad ways we have each tackled the challenges of our time.”

Representatives attended an event at the Commonwealth Secretariat’s headquarters in London, where President Gordon and Heather met HM The Queen and Secretary General of the Commonwealth Baroness Scotland.

President Gordon McInally joined a special event at the House of Commons to hear about the successful fight to rid the world of polio.

Government Minister Andrew Mitchell and President Gordon and embassy commissioners from Commonwealth countries and Rotarians from the UK and around the world were told of the “remarkable progress” of Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign.

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Minister Mitchell told the packed event: “I adore Rotary. You are a most fantastic organisation and I have seen your work around the world. Thank you for your unwavering support over many, many years.

“Despite working in some of the most challenging environments, we have reduced wild poliovirus cases by more than 99 per cent. This is an enormous success. This initiative has saved over 1.5 million lives and enabled 16 million people to walk. The absence of this initiative would have left them paralysed.

“I want to thank you for your collaboration, commitment and contributions. Rotary is an important partner for the government and the remarkable progress on polio eradication is a prime example of its impact.”

President Gordon had earlier told the representatives from as far afield as Pakistan to Putney:

“Since the inception of our efforts, we have reached an astonishing 3 billion children with the polio vaccine, ensuring that even the most vulnerable, those living in conflict zones, remote areas, and whose families on the move, receive the protection they deserve.

“Perhaps most significantly, we have averted a staggering 20 million cases of paralysis. To put all this into perspective, imagine that nearly one in every three individuals in the UK has been spared from the devastation of polio.

Let’s recognise the science that says we can get this job done, let’s keep up the momentum and keep up the personal commitment as we approach the finishing line.”

Judith Diment, Vice Chair of the International PolioPlus Committee, said: ”The Commonwealth has been a key ally in the global polio eradication effort. Support from Commonwealth member states accounts for roughly one-quarter of all of the global investment in polio eradication.”

She thanked Minister Mitchell “for his personal support to integrate a gender perspective into programming and increase women’s meaningful participation and decision-making. This is important work which we should all champion.

“As we have heard tonight, a polio free world is within our grasp, but will require our continued, deliberate support. Let’s continue to strive toward zero, and together, we will End Polio once and for all.”