page_title: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2013
section_title: Boycott
hierarchical_section_title: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2013 / Controversy / Boycott
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Navin Ramgoolam
context_page_description: The 23rd Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 15 to 17 November 2013. Commonwealth leaders agreed on Sri Lanka as the 2013 host for the meeting when they met in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in 2009. Sri Lanka, which was originally slated to host the summit in 2011, was accused of committing atrocities during the Sri Lankan civil war and the summit was instead held in Perth, Australia; Colombo was given the 2013 summit instead. The leaders of Canada, Mauritius, and India boycotted the summit, citing alleged human rights violations by Sri Lanka against its Tamil minority. Protests were also banned during the summit. President Mahinda Rajapaksa summarised the summit's events as: "Issues covered in the communique include development, political values, global threats, challenges and Commonwealth cooperation." However, the meeting was overshadowed by controversy over Sri Lanka's human rights record and the alleged war crimes during the final stages of the civil war. This was the first time in 40 years that the Head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II, was not present at the CHOGM.
context_section_description: There were significant calls from many bodies not to host the summit in Sri Lanka and to boycott the event, because of the country's alleged poor human rights record and reported atrocities against the Tamil population in the country.
  Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper stated that he would not attend the meeting as a protest at Sri Lanka's alleged failure to improve its human rights record, as he said he would at the previous CHOGM; the Canadian Prime Minister had previously  walked out of the 2011 summit during its last day when Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was invited to speak. It was announced that Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of Foreign Affairs Deepak Obhrai would represent Canada. Harper further elaborated that Canada might cease its contributions to the funding of the Commonwealth should no action be taken by the organisation against Sri Lanka; he cited the impeachment of the country's chief justice and the execution and imprisonment of journalists and political opponents of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. At the time, Senator Hugh Segal, Canada's envoy to the Commonwealth, claimed that the Commonwealth Secretariat was acting "as a 'shill'" for Sri Lanka's government.
  In October 2013, the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu passed a unanimous resolution demanding that the Indian government boycott the meeting and also sought the temporary suspension of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth until Sri Lanka takes steps to grant what they call similar rights to Tamils as those enjoyed by Sinhalese. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced his decision not to participate in the event due to pressure from the regional Tamil party regarding Sri Lanka's alleged human rights record. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who represented India at the summit in the prime minister's place, said: "The position we have taken is, it is not a boycott."
  The Prime Minister of Mauritius, Navin Ramgoolam, stated that he would not attend the meeting as a protest at Sri Lanka's alleged failure to improve its human rights record  and was thus withdrawing as the host of CHOGM 2015 as protocol would have required him to attend the summit in order to personally invite other member states. "I have made it perfectly clear that human rights are more important than hosting a Commonwealth summit, regardless of its importance."
  In the United Kingdom, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee called on that country's prime minister, David Cameron, not to attend the meeting in light of Sri Lanka's human rights record. Cameron also expressed concern about human rights issues in the country. However, Cameron later affirmed that he would attend. The Channel 4 documentary No Fire Zone, which presented evidence of alleged war crimes by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces, had resulted in increased calls for a boycott.
  In Malaysia, Lim Guan Eng, Chief Minister of the state of Penang, and the Secretary General of the Democratic Action Party called on the Malaysian government to boycott the summit as a protest against alleged human violations committed by the island republic against ethnic Tamils there. However, the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak rejected that and came to Colombo.
  The New Zealand Green Party also placed similar calls for a boycott and for the replacement of Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Commonwealth Chairperson-in-office for the next two years. However New Zealand Prime minister attended the meeting.
  Similar views were floated by South African anti-Apartheid campaigner and Nobel laureate archbishop Desmond Tutu who suggested that the boycott of the CHOGM could be "one of the screws that the world has to apply to help the Tamil population." but South African President Jacob Zuma attended the meeting.
caption: Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam was the third leader to boycott the summit over Sri Lanka's poor human rights record, and as a result, relinquished his country's bid to host the next summit in 2015.
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