CHOGM 2022: Daily Highlights – 22 June

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall arrived in Kigali on 21 June 2022, ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).  

Today, they met with the President and First Lady of Rwanda, H.E. Paul Kagame and H.E. Jeanette Kagame, at Urugwiro Village where they discussed existing partnerships and areas of mutual interest. 

Ahead of their meeting with the President and First Lady, they visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where they received a tour of the Memorial’s exhibits, including personal effects and photographs of the victims of the Genocide. Read more here.  

Also this morning, leaders and senior officials from across the Commonwealth voiced their robust support for a non-binding charter on climate change, biodiversity and land degradation, that would boost coordinated action in these areas among the 54 countries of the Commonwealth. The document, known as the ‘Living Lands Charter’, is slated for discussion and possible adoption later this week at CHOGM. 

Today also marked the beginning of high-level ministerial meetings - the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group Meeting and Commonwealth Ministers Meeting on Small States (CMMSS) took place. At the Small States Meeting, ministers discussed how best to strengthen support for the Commonwealth’s 32 Small States. They stressed the need to forge partnerships to mobilise global efforts on the issues affecting small states, such as the persistent environmental, health and economic shocks heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic ramifications of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. 

In other news, the Commonwealth Secretariat’s ground-breaking collaboration with Cambridge University has unlocked more than $10 million of private financing for Small Island Developing States. The Cambridge collaboration brings young people together with political leaders and world-leading experts to generate and stress-test new policy ideas ahead of implementation. As part of the project, teams generate funding templates for Small Island Developing States to attract new investment in projects designed to promote young participation and sustainable development. 

Meanwhile, at the Countering Violent Extremism event, the Commonwealth Secretariat launched a manual for managing and supporting the proactive reintegration of violent extremists returning from conflicts, and their families, whilst keeping communities safe and stopping the spread of terrorist ideals. 

The Commonwealth People’s Forum — the largest gathering of civil society in the Commonwealth — concluded today after two days of deliberations. The second day focused on three sessions: Innovations in Participatory Governance; Advancing Freedom of Expression in the Commonwealth; and A Commonwealth for All. Catch up on Day 1 highlights here.  

WATCH TODAY’S RECORDINGS  

Commonwealth Business Forum   

• Ecosystems: Redesigning Global Value Chains in a Post- COVID World 

• Our Common Health: Delivering Equitable Healthcare 

• Bridging the Digital Divide 

• Financing Blue-Green Growth for Sustainable Islands   

Commonwealth Secretariat  

• CHOGM 2022 Playlist – a collection of video highlights and vox pops from CHOGM 2022   

READ TODAY’S PRESS RELEASES  

• Ministers call for greater international action to strengthen the resilience of Small States  

• Commonwealth leaders line up to support action on ‘living lands’ 

• $10 million extra funding for Commonwealth Small Island Developing States 

• Manual for managing rehabilitation of ex-terrorists launches at Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting 

• World Environment Court proposed at meeting of Commonwealth civil society experts ahead of COP27 

• Only by coming together as a Commonwealth family, can we achieve gender equality: the final day of the Commonwealth Women’s Forum 

• Climate change, technology take centre stage on day two of the 2022 Commonwealth Business Forum

PHOTOS  

• Commonwealth Secretariat - CHOGM 2022 Album  

MEDIA  

Visit our media hub for information about the media centre, pooling systems, and interview requests.   

Pooling System - Update 

A pooling system has been put in place for key sessions and the full programme is available on the Commonwealth’s website. For further information and to register your interest to be part of a particular pool, please visit the media centre at the Kigali Convention Centre (KCC) or contact us via email at [email protected].  

You will need to sign a pooled footage form at the media centre information desk.  

SOCIAL MEDIA   

For the latest updates, please follow the Secretariat on social media using the hashtag #CHOGM2022:    

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn  

To support us on social media please use the posts and multimedia in our toolkit.  

UPCOMING FORUMS AND EVENTS  

• Kigali Summit on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).  

• Rwanda - Commonwealth Fashion Week - Collective Rwanda. All delegates are invited to attend, and an RSVP is not required. Contact Natasha Haguma, Collective Rwanda, at [email protected].   

• A full schedule of events is available here. 

Photo credit: Office of the President of Rwanda

Media contact

For further information, the Commonwealth Secretariat's point of contact for all media activities related to CHOGM 2022 is:

• CHOGM Communications team, Commonwealth Secretariat
• + 44 7894 593508  |  E-mail