Lord Lasike attends CPC centennial celebration [1]
Sunday, July 24, 2011 - 21:31. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
THE delegation including Tongas Speaker of the House Lord Lasike and Hon. Douglas Ete from Soloman Islands joined government representatives and guests from over 30 Commonwealth countries at a private dinner on Friday 21 July.
The event was held at the Royal Commonwealth Society in advance of the centennial Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference next week.
The conference will tackle issues of vital importance to all Commonwealth countries through its overarching theme Reinforcing Democracy and the Commonwealth 2011 theme Women as Agents of Change. It will also address the specific challenges which affect Commonwealth countries including migration and countering threats to stability of democracies such as piracy, drug trafficking and terrorism.
The conference and its hosting body, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, are unique as they give equal importance to national, state/provincial and overseas territories legislatures as well as government, opposition and minority parties.
Claire Whitaker, Deputy Chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society welcomed the distinguished guests, noting that the long distances delegates had travelled serves to remind us all just how wonderfully diverse our Commonwealth family has become and just how far democracy has spread across this association of nations.
Guest of honour, UK Lord Speaker Baroness Hayman, emphasised the importance of the event, saying, we all have this opportunity to do enormously important things for women...not just for women, but for families, communities, societies and for the world.
The conference will be formally opened at a ceremony in Westminster Hall on Monday 25 July. Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, 23/07/11.