'An inspiration': Tributes to U.K.'s late Queen Elizabeth at U.N. meeting

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II passed away on September 8, 2022

This year's U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders came on the heels of another event that reverberated internationally — the death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, followed by both an outpouring of tributes and sometimes bitter reflection on the colonialist empire that came to an end during her seven decades on the throne.

There were also some questions about whether the loss of the long-reigning monarch might affect the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 56 nations that, in many cases, have historic and linguistic ties to Britain. Fourteen of them are Commonwealth “realms” — former colonies where the British monarch, now King Charles III, remains the head of state.

Some already were revisiting that relationship before the queen's death.

Barbados snipped its link to the monarchy and became fully independent last year, to felicitations from Elizabeth and Charles. The prime ministers of Jamaica and of Antigua and Barbuda said earlier this year that they intend to do likewise, and Antigua and Barbuda's Gaston Browne followed up after the queen's death by telling Britain's ITV News that he planned to call a referendum within three years.

Others have no such plans, at least for the moment. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had laid some groundwork for a potential Australian republic earlier in the year but said after Elizabeth's death that it was time to honor the queen, not change up the government. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern, who supports becoming a republic, said she didn't plan to take up the matter soon, noting there are many other issues on the country's plate.

So there are on the General Assembly's agenda, too, and the future of the Commonwealth didn't factor in the major speeches each country gets to make. But some did take time to remember the queen and invoked her words and example to suggest future action — or lessons for leaders.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss, whom Elizabeth formally appointed two days before her death, said Elizabeth “symbolized the post-war values” underlying the U.N. and recalled a speech that the queen gave at the General Assembly in 1957.