Patricia Scotland assumes office of Commonwealth Secretary-General for second term

Rwanda: As Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2022 witnessed the opening ceremony on June 24, 2022, QC Patricia Baroness Scotland efficiently retained the support from the member states of the Commonwealth. The result of the meeting allows Scotland to reassume the office of the Secretary General of the Commonwealth.

Patricia Scotland defeated Jamaica’s Kamina Johnson Smith in the CHOGM 2022 held at Kigali, Rwanda and secured 27 votes. Johnson Smith managed to secure 23 votes of the member states.

By retaining her position back for the second term, Baroness Scotland reverted back to the critics and proved her capability with her incredible leadership skills. Through her ability to uplift the Commonwealth with her re-energizing and remerging vision, Patricia Scotland always brings unity among member states which turns out as a positive result of her top position for her.

Various heads of Government from 54 Commonwealth countries gathered in Kigali, Rwanda, voted in favour of Patricia Scotland to serve the organization. However, it turned out as a significant loss for the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom- Boris Johson, as he supported Kamina Johnson.

Some facts about Patricia Scotland:

Born in Dominica. Scotland became the tenth of 12 children of Dominican and Antiguan Roman Catholic parents. Her family went to Walthamstow in northeast London when she was two years old, where she joined Chanel End Secondary School and Walthamstow School for Girls. After that, she went to the Mid Essex Technical College in Chelmsford, where she received an external Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of London. Her era of specialization was Family law when she was admitted to the Middle Temple Bar in 1977. In 1978, she was admitted to the Dominican Bar.

From 1999 to 2001, Scotland served as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth. Further, she joined the British Privy Council and got appointed as Parliamentary Secretary in the Lord Chancellor’s Department in 2001.

While creating history, Patricia Scotland also became the first black Attorney General of Britain from 2007 to 2010.

She was further nominated by her native Dominica for the position of CSG at the CHOGM in Malta in 2015 and became the first woman and second person from the Caribbean to hold the position.

Patricia Scotland always remained diligent in her work and voiced against several issues, especially the issues related to the Commonwealth countries. She also highlighted the issues of the Small Island Developing States and the deadly impact of climate change on these states.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was started on June 20, 2022, and held under the theme “Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming,” was placed today in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.