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Commonwealth Day Message
by Her Majesty The Queen
The theme this year - A New Generation - captures the reality of
a young Commonwealth. More than half of our 1.7 billion people are
under the age of twenty-five. They are the future of the organisation.
These young people face a world of challenge and change. Many must
cope with a life where even the basics of human existence - food,
shelter and clean water - are far from guaranteed, or in very short
supply. Others have had their lives blighted by war, disease, or
environmental damage. Far too few enjoy the prospect of a decent
education, or work which can give expression to their talents and
energies.
Yet for all its ills and difficulties the world of the new generation
also offers opportunities: instant communication, the transfer of
knowledge, and advances in science and technology which, if applied
sensibly, can help people achieve a more fulfilling life.
Despite all these opportunities, we still seem transfixed by our
differences. This is where our young people are so important. They
know there are many problems which can only be resolved when people
in different countries work together. I hope we can persuade them
that the Commonwealth, whose very strength is in its diversity,
has much to offer them in charting a path across the barriers of
race and religion, distance and economic circumstance.
Making our Commonwealth matter to its younger members is the task
for those of us who have lived through its development over the
last fifty years or so. Ten Commonwealth leaders have been charged
with conducting a review of our association's future. When they
report to the Summit in Brisbane in six months' time, I hope they
will bring with them a message of renewal. For what the Commonwealth
becomes will depend on its success in engaging with those of the
new generation; capturing their imagination; firing their vision;
and enlisting their energy and commitment to an association which
I believe can be as important to the twenty-first century as it
has been to the twentieth.
12 March 2001
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