EDITOR’S NOTE
PROMOTING AND PROTECTING OUR RIGHTS
The Editor’s Note
Today, many of the rights which we take for granted in our daily lives have developed through their definitions as laid out in international treaties and conventions, such as the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the Commonwealth Charter. This also extends back to early documents in history such as the Magna Carta, which established the basic freedom of the individual and rights such as the right to ‘trial by jury’, which is celebrating its 800th anniversary in 2015. This issue of The Parliamentarian focuses on the many different rights that we value and the challenges to those rights that affect people right across the Commonwealth. It also examines how parliamentarians are working to promote and protect those rights in many different ways. The 800th
anniversary of Magna Carta this year provides us with the opportunity to reflect upon the historical aspects of our rights and the establishment of key principles that have shaped parliamentary democracies across the Commonwealth. Sir Robert Worcester, Chairman of the Magna Carta 800th
Anniversary Commemoration Committee and a leading academic gives us his
Jeffrey Hyland, Editor The Parliamentarian
overview of the international legacy of the charter. The Acting Secretary-General & Director of Finance and Administration of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), Mr Joe Omorodion outlines in his ‘View’ how Magna Carta and other international treaties have influenced rights in the Commonwealth and how they have given parliamentarians renewed focus on protecting these rights. The Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the CPA, Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, MP (Bangladesh) shares her vision for the CPA and its members in a speech that was given at the Executive Committee meeting held in Sabah,
Malaysia earlier this year.
The political, military and judicial challenges in combating cross- border terrorism and the impact this has on human rights is examined by Dr. Benjamjn Kunbuor, MP (Ghana) while the Chair of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Rt Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, MP (Uganda) in her ‘View’ looks at the role of women in the fight against global terrorism.
70 | The Parliamentarian | 2015: Issue Two
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