Commonwealth realm

A Commonwealth realm is one of a group of sovereign states within the Commonwealth of Nations that have the same person, currently Charles III, as their monarch and head of state. All the realms are independent of each other, although one person, resident in the United Kingdom, acts as monarch of each.^[1]^[2]^[3] Except for the UK, in each of the realms the monarch is represented by a governor-general. The phrase Commonwealth realm is an informal description not used in any law.

As of 2024^[update], there are 15 Commonwealth realms: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom. While the Commonwealth of Nations has 56 independent member states, only these 15 have Charles III as head of state. He is also Head of the Commonwealth, a non-constitutional role.

The notion of these states sharing the same person as their monarch traces back to 1867 when Canada became the first dominion, a self-governing nation of the British Empire; others, such as Australia (1901) and New Zealand (1907), followed. With the growing independence of the dominions in the 1920s, the Balfour Declaration of 1926 established the Commonwealth of Nations and that the nations were considered "equal in status ... though united by a common allegiance to the Crown".^[1] The Statute of Westminster 1931 further set the relationship between the realms and the Crown, including a convention that any alteration to the line of succession in any one country must be voluntarily approved by all the others. The modern Commonwealth of Nations was then formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949 when India wanted to become a republic without leaving the Commonwealth; this left seven independent nations sharing the Crown: Australia, Canada, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Since then, new realms have been created through the independence of former colonies and dependencies; Saint Kitts and Nevis is the youngest extant realm, becoming one in 1983. Some realms became republics; Barbados changed from being a realm to a republic in 2021.^[4]

^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference Trepanier28 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Cox was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Bogdanor, Vernon (1998), The Monarchy and the Constitution, New York: Oxford University Press, p. 288, ISBN 978-0-19-829334-7
^ Torrance, David (29 November 2021). "Insight: Barbados becomes a republic" [The Queen will no longer be head of state in Barbados but the country remains a member of the Commonwealth.]. British Parliament (published 29 November 2022). House of Commons Library. Retrieved 13 February 2022.

[Trepanier28-1] Cite error: The named reference Trepanier28 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Cox-2] Cite error: The named reference Cox was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Bogdanor-3] Bogdanor, Vernon (1998), The Monarchy and the Constitution, New York: Oxford University Press, p. 288, ISBN 978-0-19-829334-7

[4] Torrance, David (29 November 2021). "Insight: Barbados becomes a republic" [The Queen will no longer be head of state in Barbados but the country remains a member of the Commonwealth.]. British Parliament (published 29 November 2022). House of Commons Library. Retrieved 13 February 2022.

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