One of the high points of our calendar is the annual Commonwealth Lecture. This keynote address by an internationally renowned public figure is designed to stimulate intellectual debate about the 54-member association and its role in world affairs.
Mrs Sonia Gandhi
Women as Agents of Change
17 March 2011
8 Northumberland, London UK
Read the lecture text
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Dr James Martin
Science and Technology: Impacts on Society in the 21st Century
28 April 2010
The Royal Institution of Great Britain
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Mr Terry Waite CBE
The Commonwealth @ 60: serving a new generation
14 September 2009
The Guildhall, City of London
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Dr David Suzuki
The challenge of the 21st Century: setting the real bottom line
12 March 2008
London School of Economics
Listen: In conversation before the lecture
Dr Ali A Mazrui
The power of language and the policy of religion
15 May 2007
London School of Economics
Listen to the lecture:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Mr James D Wolfensohn
The future role of the Commonwealth: a bridge between an emerging three speed world
2 March 2006
Institute of Education, University of London
H E Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
Development and democracy: partnership for peace and prosperity
15 March 2005
Institute of Education, University of London
Rt Hon Jean Chrétien
Making progress through multilaternalism
30 March 2004
Commonwealth Institute, London
Professor Muhammad Yunus
Halving poverty by 2015: we can actually make it happen
11 March 2003
Mrs Mary Robinson
Human rights in the shadow of September 11th
6 June 2002
Mrs Graça Machel
Gender inequality: from roles to rights
13 March 2001
Mr Kofi Annan
Africa: Maintaining the momentum
14 March 2000
Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser AC, CH
The nation state and globalisation
1999
Professor Amartya Kumar Sen
Human Rights: is there a Commonwealth perspective?
7 May 1998