The relevance of the Commonwealth as an institution has become the subject matter of debate after the conclusion of the CHOGM 2018 in London. The official communique was widely seen to phrase important issues in too general terms and merely affirm what is after all non-controversial.

However, the importance of CHOGM 2018 may well lie in the import of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s opening speech in which she noted that discriminatory laws criminalising same-sex relations ‘continue to affect the lives of many people’. In a further elaboration, she went on to note that:

“I am all too aware that these laws were often put in place by my own country. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now. As the UK’s Prime Minister, I deeply regret both the fact that such laws were introduced, and the legacy of discrimination, violence and even death that persists today.”

The ‘regret’ that May expressed followed a campaign by LGBT activists around the world who wanted Britain to apologise as the anti-sodomy laws had blighted the lives of same-sex desiring people in the ex-British colonies. In fact, organisations from the Caribbean and Sri Lanka made a statement at the Universal Periodic Review of the United Kingdom where they sought an apology from the United Kingdom for exporting the anti-sodomy laws to all parts of the Commonwealth. Read more via the Wire