Scotland will officially take office starting April 1 next year, taking over the position from Kamalesh Sharma, whose two-term tenure ends on March 31 next year.
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Commonwealth leaders meeting in Malta have chosen Baroness Patricia Scotland as the world grouping’s first female secretary-general after a fraught session to choose between three candidates.
She was elected at the start of the Commonwealth summit in Malta.
Scotland, a lawyer who has dual British and Dominican citizenship, served as minister of state, deputy home secretary and attorney-general under the previous Labour government in the UK.
In her first comments she said it was “a huge privilege” to occupy an important role.
When Scotland takes over from Sharma, she will get the keys to the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Marlborough House headquarters in London, close to Buckingham Palace. She was the first black woman to be made a Queen’s Council in 1991.
The Commonwealth Secretary-General is the head of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the central body which has served the Commonwealth of Nations since its establishment in 1965, and responsible for representing the Commonwealth publicly.
“There is much to do but I hope all 53 of us will look together at the vision, will look at what we need to do on climate change, on education, on science and technology and we will make this a better world for our children”. I think her Majesty put it very well this morning when describing the nature of our small islands.
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Her election today at the meeting of the Heads of Government culminates a bruising two-year battle which saw her pitted against Antigua’s nominee Sir Ron Sanders.
