02
Jul
On Monday the Civil BRICS Forum was opened in Moscow. The first of the planned working days of the Forum was concluded with a press conference: “Civil society of BRICS countries and authorities: is the dialog possible?” during which the heads of the BRICS countries delegations and co-chairs of the Forum delivered their speeches. They spoke about the results of the first day and about the things that unite such different civil societies of the BRICS countries.
All the leaders of delegations highlighted that civil societies in the BRICS countries are fundamentally different but these differences help to make contribution to the overall development.
“Right now in the Western media and in the heads of people living in the West prevails the idea that the BRICS countries must be like them” – said Samir Saran, Vice President of ORF (New Delhi, India). “But we are all different and civil societies of our countries complement each other”.
The diversity of civil society was also noted by the Coordinator of the project “Global South Unification for the Effective Dialogue,” the BRICS Policy Research Center, Monica Herz (Brazil):
“It is interesting that the first Forum is taking place in Russia. In fact the Indian civil society, for instance, differs from the Brazilian one. However, today we have heard the main thing – it is necessary to create the unity of diversity and differences.”
The Forum Co-chair, Director of the Social Information Agency and member of the President Human Rights Council Elena Topoleva-Soldunova emphasized the important role of civil society which it plays in the whole world:
“Today successful governance at global, regional and state levels is exercised without the participation of the country. We all see that ideas accepted without taking into account the opinion of civil society may not just be implemented.”
However, civil society does not only estimate initiatives of authorities but it is an initiator of the changes itself.
The Deputy CEO of the Human Science Research Council, Republic of South Africa, Temba Masilela said: “While speaking about civil society, it is necessary to understand that it has been passing several steps of development. In South Africa it was first recognized at state level and then gained access to discuss current issues. Now civil society is a full participant of the dialogue with authorities and by itself takes part in the formation of a political agenda.
The Head of the Russian delegation, Executive director of National Committee of BRICS Research Georgy Toloraya pointed out that “many issues discussed by the experts before were within the competence only of foreign affairs offices, military and intelligence structures. Nowadays civil society generating a lot of interesting ideas and initiatives is being engaged more and more in the dialogue.
The Сo-chair of the Forum, Director of the Regional Public Organization “AIDS Infoshare” Elena Peryshkina showed the prospects of BRICS civil societies’ interaction on the concrete example: “We believe that it is necessary to coordinate work of our countries among themselves and on the margins of the WHO and the UN to enhance international potential to address new challenges for example to the outburst of new infections.
During three days of work the delegates of the Forum will improve and make recommendations, which will be submitted to the leaders of the BRICS countries later on. The heads of delegations told about the working process on the elaboration of this document content.
“Twenty organizations are taking part in the Forum on our behalf” told Shen Guofang, Vice President of the China Foundation for International Studies. Our task is to prepare and submit the most important recommendations for the BRICS summit in Ufa. “In particular, we are working in two dimensions: the first one is how to sustain peace and security in the whole world; the second one is how the governance in the world should be built”.
The Co-chair of the Forum, Chief Strategy Planning Advisor Victoria Panova expressed her hope that the process of civil society engagement in the work will be continued in future in the framework of subsequent presidencies: “If interaction of our countries is effective at all levels, this alliance will allow all the participants to increase their influence on the international arena”.
Source: http://civilbrics.ru/en/news/693/