BRICS and Inclusion of Special Needs People: Kazan 2024
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In December 2015, I posted in my blog about the huge potential of the BRICS in developing cooperation for the development of inclusive economies and societies devoid of the neocolonialist new world order dictate that seems to be still imposed on most developing nations. In that article, I stated, “we have hope – the development of the BRICS coalition and partnership building with developing nations”. Russia was also holding the Presidency of BRICS at that time.
The Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership 2025, or BRICS Strategy states, “We express our commitment to sustainable development in three dimensions - economic, social and environmental - in a balanced and integrative manner. All our citizens, in all parts of respective territories, including remote areas, deserve to fully enjoy the benefits of sustainable development. We reiterate the importance of the implementation of the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development and call for redoubled efforts for its timely implementation.” 11th BRICS Summit Brasilia Declaration.
The BRICS countries overtook the G7 countries share of the world’s total gross domestic product (GDP) in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2018. By 2024, the difference had increased even further, the BRICS is now holding a total 35% of the world’s GDP compared to 30% by the G7 countries. BRICS nations comprise 40% of the world’s population and are known for their significant influence in regional matters. All of them are members of the G20. Furthermore, all these member nations of BRICS also acknowledge the importance of accessible and quality of education for improving life and work conditions in pursuit of inclusive economic development. They all seek to develop robust and inclusive economies and societies.
Why should Special Needs Peoples’ inclusion be part of BRICS Strategy and Beyond?
According to the United Nations, there are over 1.2 billion special needs people. China has 85 million people with disabilities, or 6.5% of the population, China has enacted more than 60 laws and regulations aimed at safeguarding the rights of individuals with disabilities, encompassing those with visual, auditory, linguistic, physical, intellectual, psychological, and multiple disabilities. A new World Bank Report on disabled persons in India, has observed that there is growing evidence that people with disabilities comprise between 5% and 8% of the Indian population or around 55 – 90 million individuals. While in Brazil, nearly 18.6 million persons or 8.9% aged 2 years and over in Brazil have some type of disability.
Moreover, the national disability prevalence rate is 7.5% of the population in South Africa. Disability is more prevalent among females compared to males (8,3% and 6,5% respectively). Disability International state that, Russian official statistics indicate that there are least 13 million people or 9% of the population living with disabilities in Russia. Thus we are looking at nearly 200 million special needs people who as citizens of BRICS nations should be part of the BRICS strategy for economic social development process. These figures do not include the numbers of Special Needs People in new member countries of BRICS Plus.
How can Russia during its Presidency make a difference for Special Needs People’s inclusion in the BRICS Strategy and Beyond?
Russia has approximately 32% or 2.5 million people with disabilities who are of working age and employed. Special Needs People often face steep challenges that stop them from being employed. During the BRICS Presidency, showcasing Russian special needs employment process as good practice, information sharing on policy supported by constituional rights can be useful for others to also learn. For example, how to break barriers that stifle special needs peoples employment inclusion.
The National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) of the Russian Federation, the Russian Federation states that the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Art.39) guarantees social security at the expense of the State in case of disableness. The goal of the state policy in the field of social protection of disabled people in the Russian Federation is provision of equal rights for the disabled in realization of civil, economic, political and other rights and freedoms as well as provision of measures of social support with a view of overcoming and compensation for the limited ability to perform daily living tasks.
The NHRI states that since the ratification of the Convention, the legislative and executive branches of the Russian authorities have done a lot to bring domestic law and its implementation into line with the Convention. Thus in addition to the already existing notion of “rehabilitation” the legislation introduced a new term of “habilitation” which was defined as a set of measures to enable the disabled to engage in social, professional, educational and daily activities by developing new abilities which they had lacked before (NHRI, 2018). Support for people with disabilities is provided in the following areas:
- medical rehabilitation;
- vocational guidance;
- social adaptation;
- physical training and wellness promotion.
Kick-Starting A Dialogue Processes at the Kazan BRICS Summit 2024
During Russia's presidency of BRICS, we hope that leading organisations like the RIAC with Russian Universities, civil society organisations, and the private sector, and in collaboration with the Government will consider initiating a dialogue process for Special Needs Peoples inclusion in the BRICS Strategy 2025 and beyond. We hope that during the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan this October 2024, RIAC can facilitate an opportunity for such an exploratory dialogue. We suggest that this dialogue can be utilised to explore the possibility of adopting policy and action initiatives. It also will allow exploration and promotion of existing Special Needs inclusion policies as good practice without imposition on BRICS member states. Furthermore, it could kick-start a process opportunity of a gradual overflow to BRICS Plus and non-BRICS nations globally.
I believe that discussion can facilitate at the very least create awareness, with an optimal potential to formulate a BRICS nations-driven vanguard special needs people inclusion policy and practice. Additionally, ideas can be gathered from inputs at the dialogue. Simultaneously, buy-in and partnership development can be harnessed with possible implementation process models suggested for initiative roll-out in various countries - BRICS and BRICS future member nations.
From small steps of staging the kick-start of this proposed dialogue at the Kazan BRICS summit this October 2024, we hope to realisation better inclusion of Special Needs People in the coming years. Thus, BRICS can bring to the world a new effort to facilitate a commitment to inclusive Special Needs People inclusion.
