What Is The Function Of The Commonwealth? How Does It Benefit The Countries And Citizens Within It?

The Commonwealth of Nations is an intergovernmental organisation which promotes the common shared values of it’s member nations, democracy, free speech, human rights and the rule of law which are enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter......

Although the Queen is the symbolic Head of the Commonwealth the organisation operates by consensus of the member nation governments through the Commonwealth Secretariat based in Marlborough House in London.

The Commonwealth benefits its member nations and citizens through promoting the shared core objectives first outlined in the 1971 Singapore Declaration, which committed the Commonwealth towards world peace, promoting representative democracy,

 individual liberty and freedom, the pursuit of equality and opposition to racism; the fight against poverty, ignorance, and disease; and free trade. 

The opposition to discrimination on the basis of gender was added in the Lusaka Declaration of 1979, and environmental sustainability by the Langkawi Declaration of 1989.

Some have commented that the Commonwealth is out of date or meaningless. I would argue any organisation with these objectives must be a force for good, not only to its member nations but also for the world.