This week we will meet with fellow Commonwealth heads of government in Windsor. One of the most pressing challenges facing smaller Commonwealth governments is the impact of climate change, and the rising debt burden we face as a result.

The 2017 hurricane season was one of the most devastating in Caribbean history. In Barbuda and Dominica destruction totalled more than twice annual GDP. The growing severity of hurricanes in the Caribbean is related to climate change, a major global threat primarily caused by countries far richer and larger than our own.

In the wake of increasingly frequent and devastating disasters, and in the absence of sufficient grants to support climate mitigation and adaption and sustainable development, small islands have no choice but to resort to taking on more debt. Yet many already have large debts as a result of past disasters and injustices, loss of trade preferences, and exclusion from debt relief schemes, while our small size makes us more vulnerable to economic shocks such as global financial crises.

As climate change gets worse, we urgently need a new system for fast and effective debt relief when disasters hit. We should not have to bear these extra costs ourselves through climate risk insurance. We call on larger Commonwealth countries, including the UK, to play a leading role in the creation of such a system. Those who have contributed the most to climate change are the real debtors and it is, therefore, unfair that small island developing states, which are most vulnerable, like those in the Caribbean, be indebted as a result.

We look forward to this meeting resulting in a bold decision to address the issues raised above, in the best interests of all.

Keith Mitchell Prime minister of Grenada

Gaston Browne Prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda

• Heads of government from the 53 nations of the Commonwealth arrive in London on Monday for their biennial meeting. The official meeting website says that they will “agree how to … create a better future for all our citizens”. But this commitment rings hollow to the millions of LGBT+ people who live in the 37 Commonwealth countries where homosexuality is illegal. For every one of these countries with an anti-gay law, lives are on the line: a lesbian in Sri Lanka who can’t go to the police when she’s attacked; a gay man in Nigeria behind bars just for being who he is; the activists who organise Pride Uganda denied the right to peaceful freedom of assembly and arrested and beaten by police.

Many Commonwealth leaders shamelessly scapegoat LGBT+ people for domestic political advantage. They often exploit the false narrative that homosexuality is a “western import” and argue that for this reason it must be eradicated. With the UK hosting this year’s meeting, we want to put the record straight. It is not homosexuality that is a western import, but homophobia. Most of the laws used to criminalise and persecute innocent LGBT+ citizens across these Commonwealth countries are British exports. This is colonial-era legislation, often unamended, that has been retained since Commonwealth countries became independent. The UK must accept that these laws are one more damning indictment of Britain’s colonial past. All Out and other Commonwealth organisations have come together to demand action. Through our petition we are calling on the UK to use this week’s meeting in London to acknowledge that most homophobic laws across the Commonwealth came from Britain, and to apologise to the millions of LGBT+ citizens of these countries who still suffer under these laws. An apology will clear the legacy of the past and expose the direct responsibility of today’s Commonwealth leaders for the human rights violations they commit against LGBT+ people in their countries.

There is no plan to discuss LGBT+ rights at this week’s meeting. But if the leaders gathering in London and Windsor want the Commonwealth to be recognised as a credible 21st-century global body, they must include an open and frank discussion of anti-LGBT law decriminalisation on their agenda. It is no longer acceptable that love is illegal for millions of Commonwealth citizens. It’s time to fix it.

Aderonke Apata Founder, African Rainbow Family

Matt Beard Executive director, All Out

Friedel Dausab Executive director, Out-Right (Namibia)

Jaz Dawson Secretary and director, Kaleidoscope Human Rights Foundation (Australia)

Rosanna Flamer Executive director, Equal Ground (Sri Lanka)

Dr Qasim Iqbal NAZ Pakistan

Isaac Mugisha Spectrum Uganda Initiatives

Akudo Oguaghamba Executive director, Women’s Health and Equal Rights (Nigeria)

Leow Yangfa Executive director, Oogachaga (Singapore)

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