2011 proposals to change the rules of royal succession in the Commonwealth realms
| 22nd Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Dates |
28 October 2011– 30 October 2011 |
| Venue(s) | Kings Park |
| Cities | Perth, Western Australia |
| Heads of State or Government | 36 |
| Chair |
Julia Gillard (Prime Minister) |
| Follows | 2009 |
| Precedes | 2013 |
| Key points | |
The Perth Agreement is an agreement made by the prime ministers of the 16 Commonwealth realms during the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in October 2011 in Perth, Western Australia, concerning amendments to the royal succession laws, namely, replacing male-preference primogeniture, under which male descendants take precedence over females in the line of succession, with absolute primogeniture; ending the disqualification of those married to Roman Catholics; and limiting the number of individuals in line to the throne requiring permission from the sovereign to marry. However, the ban on Catholics and other non-Protestants becoming sovereign and the requirement for the sovereign to be in communion with the Church of England remained.
By December 2012, all the realm governments had agreed to implement the proposals. New Zealand chaired a working group to determine the process for reform. The Commonwealth realms—the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis—are independent of each other, while sharing one person as monarch in a constitutionally equal fashion. It was affirmed that legislation in those realms that required it would commence when the appropriate domestic arrangements were in place in all the realms and the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom announced on 26 March 2015 that the amendments had come into effect "across" every realm; Canada's law was challenged in court but has been upheld.
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