This Week's English Speaking Countries

The Commonwealth of Nations



Queen Dancing by Beryl Cook



Unit 2 of our textbook looks at nationalities. We've been considering geo-political names in English, and we were asked to explain the British Commonwealth. Here is some info to help us.

The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and previously known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states. All but two (Mozambique and Rwanda) of these countries were formerly part of the British Empire.

The member states co-operate within a framework of common values and goals. These include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace. The Commonwealth is not a political union, but an intergovernmental organisation through which countries with diverse social, political and economic backgrounds are regarded as equal in status.

The head of the Commonwealth is Queen Elizabeth II. (No wonder she dances!) The official language is English. The estimated population (2005) is 1,921,974,000.

Source: Wikipedia