Friday, 27 November, 2015, Malta: The Commonwealth of Dominica’s candidate for Commonwealth Secretary General, The Right Honourable Baroness Scotland of Asthal, Patricia Scotland, has been elected to the top post, and shall take office on 1 April 2016. She is a dual British and Dominican subject. She will be given a four-storey Edwardian mansion in London as her official residence.
The election took place in Malta where the 53 Heads of state of the union gathered for a summit. “I am incredibly proud to be the first woman to hold the post of Secretary General,” she said at a press conference after the election.
Baroness Scotland of Asthal is a British barrister, and served in many ministerial positions within Her Britannic Majesty’s Government, most notably as the Attorney-General for England and Wales and Advocate-General for Northern Ireland. She made history in 1991 when she became the first black women to be appointed a Queen’s Counsel. She was born in Dominica in 1955. Likewise she is the first Briton/Dominican due to hold the office.
The Commonwealth Secretary-General is elected to a maximum of two four-year terms. The Secretary-General is responsible for representing the Commonwealth publicly, and is the Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth Secretariat which supports dialogue and collaboration between member governments at the intergovernmental level.
Past secretary generals are:
Ambassador Arnold Smith
Sir Shridath Ramphal
Chief Emeka Anyaoku
Sir Don McKinnon
Ambassador Kamalesh Sharma (incumbent)
For more information:
Commonwealth Secretariat: http://
Mission of the Eastern Caribbean States to the EU and the Benelux countries (Dr. Len Ishmael): www.oecs.org/about-
