The Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme on the Harare Declaration, sometimes abbreviated to just Millbrook, is a policy programme of the

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the British Commonwealth or simply the Commonwealth, is an International organization, international association of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, 56 member states, the vast majo ...

, designed to implement and uphold the Harare Declaration, which sets out the basic political membership criteria of the Commonwealth. The programme was agreed and announced on 12 November 1995 at Millbrook Resort, near Queenstown,

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, at the conclusion of the fourteenth

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM; or) is a wiktionary:biennial, biennial summit meeting of the List of current heads of state and government, governmental leaders from all Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth nations. ...

. Millbrook introduces compulsory adherence to the Harare principles, and, in enforcing them, includes aspects of both

carrot and stick The phrase "carrot and stick" is a metaphor for when two different methods of incentivisation are simultaneously employed; the "carrot", referring to the promising and giving of desired rewards in exchange for cooperation; and the "stick", refe ...

approaches. The programme encourages the membership to empower the

Commonwealth Secretariat The Commonwealth Secretariat is the main intergovernmental agency and central institution of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is responsible for facilitating co-operation between members; organising meetings, including the Commonwealth Heads of ...

to provide incentives for upholding the core political values of the Harare Declaration:

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rule of law The essence of the rule of law is that all people and institutions within a Body politic, political body are subject to the same laws. This concept is sometimes stated simply as "no one is above the law" or "all are equal before the law". Acco ...

, and

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. However, the programme also allows the Secretariat to employ bilateral and multilateral punishments against intransigent members. For serious or persistent offending countries, suspension and expulsion from the Commonwealth altogether are permitted. The programme cites an

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against a democratically elected government as a particularly serious violation. To help monitor and enforce adherence to the Harare Declaration, Millbrook established the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), which has the responsibility to examine cases of potential breaches and to recommend appropriate action to be taken by the Secretariat. Convened by the

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and consisting of

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(or equivalent) of eight members, the composition, terms of reference, and operative functions of CMAG are reviewed every two years under the programme.

Footnotes

External links

Full text of the Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme
History of the Commonwealth of Nations 1995 documents Otago 1995 in international relations {{NewZealand-gov-stub