President Yahya Jammeh's decision to yank the Gambia out of the Commonwealth was reportedly a bigger surprise to those in his immediate entourage than it was to Britain. The institution remains popular with Gambians, whether it is neocolonial, as Mr Jammeh said, or not. Few will mourn the absence at Commonwealth gatherings of the dictator who decided on a whim to execute all prisoners on death row and, who at the United Nations last week, called homosexuality a threat to human existence.
Despite his decision, the 54-member group is growing. Its members now include countries that were not former British colonies – Mozambique and Rwanda – and is increasingly attracting members of the rival club. The Francophone African nation, Gabon, sparked rumours of just such a move after it announced it would introduce English as a second language. Mr Jammeh's move followed more British focus on human rights and pressure to promote equality based on sexuality.
A greater test of how the organisation promotes its core values of democracy and human rights will come at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Sri Lanka. The host president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, is a man who should now be facing war crimes charges for the part he played in the brutal end to the Tamil Tiger insurgency. Up to 40,000 civilians were killed according to UN estimates in the final months when the separatists were corralled into "no fire zones" on the beaches in the north of the country and systemically shelled by the Sri Lankan army. Kate Allen, director of Amnesty UK, is absolutely right to highlight how many conflicts of interest Mr Rajapaksa's recent history – including the disappearance of critics and the so-called "white van kidnappings" – create with 16 core beliefs of the Commonwealth charter.
After the hurdles of decolonisation, apartheid and human rights, the Commonwealth emerges as a voluntarist group of 54 countries, half of them small or island nations, which is not entirely sure how to define itself. For much of the last decade, it was a UK legacy stuck in the attic gathering dust. But the soft power of such a group is tangible enough. The advantages of mutual prosperity have been lost sight of, although trade within the Commonwealth has increased. A study by the Royal Commonwealth Society found that this was because member states believed each other to be safer bets than non-members. But it's not all about export credit guarantees. The traditions and institutions of the club are important, too. When the Commonwealth secretary general, Kamalesh Sharma, suggested that Scotland might have to reapply for membership if it left the UK, the next host of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow was up in arms.
