INFO: Background and Context of Debate: The Commonwealth of Nations is an organisation of 54 sovereign states, linking together countries which

were once part of the British Empire (but not all, some, such as Eire and Iraq, are not members, while in 1995 Mozambique joined as the first state with no previous connection to Britain). The Commonwealth was founded in its present form in 1949 as a group of states co-operating for mutual advantage and united by common ideals, and a small secretariat was set up in 1965 to further these ends. The Commonwealths membership is very diverse, spanning rich world countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and poor ones such as Bangladesh, Tanzania and Nigeria. 33 of the countries are republics, 5 have their own monarchies and the remaining states have Queen Elizabeth II as their Head of State. Queen Elizabeth is the Head of the Commonwealth; a largely symbolic role but one which she takes very seriously. Its Heads of Government attend a summit every two years and Commonwealth friendship is celebrated every four years in the Commonwealth Games, a sort of cut-down Olympics.