The CLA, together with members from the Commonwealth Legal Forum, made a submission to the Consultation on Commonwealth membership in December 2006.

It was argued that the Commonwealth's current membership of 53 may be subject to a modest increase without losing the organisation's special identity, provided that new members comply with existing criteria in terms of having had a constitutional association with an existing member, compliance with Commonwealth values and acceptance of norms and conventions, in particular the use of English as the language of the Commonwealth.

The consultation was discussed at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting that took place in Kampala, Uganda in November 2007.  We await publication of the outcome of the consultation.

The Commonwealth Lawyers Association CLA together with the Law Council of Australia (LCA), the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA) and the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) sent a joint international observer to the trial of Karpal Singh vs. the Sultan of Perak in Kuala Lumpur from 12 – 22 August 2009. The CLA is continuing to monitor proceedings in Mr. Singh’s case.

The toolkit was ‘tested' at a workshop held in Nadi, Fiji on the 28th & 29th May 2004. At the end of the workshop, the participants drafted the Tanoa Recommendations.

The recommendations were taken forward to the 7th Commonwealth Women's Affairs Ministers Meeting that was held in Fiji from the 29th May – 3rd June 2004. The CLA also held a joint briefing with the CMJA to the Ministers and was the Rapporteur for the working group on Gender, Human Rights & Law.

The toolkit has subsequently been updated on a regular basis and is available free of charge from the secretariat. Request copy of toolkit here.

The CLA was approached by the Bar Council of Malaysia to advise in respect of two appeals pending from the decisions of the High Court of Kuala Lumpur in Raja Segaran I (10th November 2003) (“Raja I”) and Raja Segaran II (22nd June 2000) (“Raja II”).

In particular, the CLA was asked to prepare a written Opinion as to whether the Bar Council should proceed with the appeals against the two decisions of the High Court and gave advice to the substantive issue raised in these appeals, namely the question of the Bar Council's right to convene meetings to discuss proposed resolutions concerning the judiciary in Malaysia.

The CLA is one of 5 Commonwealth associations who, in 1987, founded the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), an independent, non-partisan, international non-governmental organisation, mandated to ensure the practical realisation of human rights in the countries of the Commonwealth.

CHRI's objectives are to promote awareness of and adherence to the Harare Commonwealth Declaration, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other internationally recognised human rights instruments, as well as domestic instruments supporting human rights in Commonwealth member states. CHRI is accredited to the Commonwealth, has Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and has also been granted Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council.

Further information is available at http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/default.htm

The CLA is a member of the Para55 Commonwealth HIV and AIDS Action Group (Para 55).

Para 55 is a multidisciplinary group that was established to promote and monitor the implementation of the paragraph 55 in the communiqué issued following the meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government held in Durban, South Africa in November 1999 which is devoted to reducing the impact of the global pandemic of HIV and AIDS. The group exercises every opportunity to inform and influence Commonwealth Heads of Governments and Ministers to focus more resources on the HIV/AIDS pandemic and takes the lead in producing advisory booklets on Good Practice to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS which are distributed both in hard copy and electronically.
Further information is available at http://www.para55.org