CIVICUS discusses the upcoming BRICS summit with Gustavo de Carvalho, Senior Researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), an independent public policy think tank.
The first summit of the expanded BRICS group will take place in Kazan in authoritarian Russia from 22 to 24 October. With the addition of four new repressive member states – Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – the group’s membership accounts for 45 per cent of the world’s population and 28 per cent of the global economy. The bloc positions itself as a counterweight to the G7 and the global governance system but faces criticism for its members’ human rights records.
