Bank on Human Rights:: A Call for Human Rights in the New BRICS Bank

Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, an economic and political grouping known as the BRICS, arrived in Fortaleza, Brazil this week for the 6th BRICS Summit. A focal point of the two-day meeting was the launch of the BRICS New Development Bank to rival the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other pre-eminent international financial institutions. 

Civil society organisations from BRICS countries, including Bank on Human Rights Coalition member Conectas Direitos Humanos, are in Fortaleza to call for incorporation of human rights protections in the New Development Bank.

The realization of the New Development Bank could be an important step in institutionalising South-South cooperation and challenging the dominance of Western-led financial institutions such as the World Bank and IMF. Funded and administered by a coalition of emerging economies, the Bank could allow for countries in the Global South to have a greater say in addressing their own developmental needs. 

For Caio Borges, an attorney in the Business and Human Rights Program of Conectas, the New Development Bank responds to an urgent need for diversification and innovation in development finance. However, he cautions that “a BRICS bank won’t serve the real development needs of the people of the BRICS countries if it replicates the harmful strategies adopted by other Multilateral Development Banks during past decades.”