People’s BRICS Council holds debate on the Global South in Rio de Janeiro

From MST’s website

On July 4 and 5, the city of Rio de Janeiro will host the first meeting of the People’s Council of the Building Better Global Economic (BRICS), marking a milestone in the consolidation of organized civil society participation in the group’s discussions. The meeting precedes the BRICS Leaders’ Summit and is the result of a participatory organizing process by popular movements and civil society around the bloc’s strategic agendas.

The main goal of the People’s BRICS Council meeting in Rio is to highlight the importance of popular participation within BRICS and to raise awareness of the Council as a space for building alternative proposals.

The convened event will take place at the Carlos Gomes Theater in Praça Tiradentes, downtown Rio de Janeiro, with sessions restricted to council members and accredited press professionals. At the end of the meeting (Saturday, July 5 at 4:30 p.m.), a press conference will be held to present the final document summarizing the outcomes of the meeting.

The BRICS Civil Council, dubbed the “People’s Council,” was created following discussions held at the BRICS Civil Forum in July 2024, in Russia, and was endorsed by the bloc’s leaders in the Kazan Declaration. Since then, each member country has begun the process of forming its respective council.

The BRICS Civil Forum is a platform that brings together representatives from BRICS societies across a wide range of sectors. Its goal is to promote dialogue and cooperation in search of joint solutions to global and regional challenges. It seeks to strengthen the participation of popular movements and civil society in policy-making and in promoting sustainable development in BRICS countries.

Officially, BRICS is a bloc composed of 11 permanent member countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia. As of January this year, Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Cuba, Uganda, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Uzbekistan have officially become partner countries of the group.

In 2025, under Brazil’s presidency of BRICS, the People’s Council in Brazil proposed organizing debates through seven working groups (WGs), covering topics such as health, education, ecology, culture, finance, security, and institutional development.

Thus, the meeting will serve as a space to strategically plan the role of the People’s Council in the coming years, aiming at its consolidation in all member countries and fostering the engagement of grassroots sectors of society during each BRICS presidency.

People’s BRICS Council Session – Rio de Janeiro 2025

Date: July 4 and 5

Location: Carlos Gomes Theater, Praça Tiradentes, s/n – Downtown, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, 20060-080

Press accreditation: https://forms.gle/71STJ3VGuXgYb8Fc8