Statement of the 13th BRICS Trade Union Forum (Sochi, Russia, September 7-8, 2024)
Statement of the 13th BRICS Trade Union Forum
We, the trade unions of the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Iran – have come together to expand cooperation between the workers of our countries. We have thoroughly discussed the challenges that workers face because of technological transformations and the transition to an ecologically sustainable economy, as well as the impact of the global political trends on the economic and social conditions of the workers and their families across the world.
We have noted that economic sanctions policy, arbitrarily employed by some countries, puts the workers and their families under the direct and destructive pressure, with dire economic and social consequences. Job insecurity and unemployment, inflation, impoverishment, lack of necessities of life, especially of medicines – these are some of the grim effects of sanctions policy on the workers and the most vulnerable communities.
We emphasize the lasting relevance of the global social contract embodied in the ILO founding documents. According to the Declaration of Philadelphia, “all human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity … all national and international policies and measures, in particular those of an economic and financial character, should be judged in this light and accepted only in so far as they may be held to promote and not to hinder the achievement of this fundamental objective.”
Therefore, we believe that any restrictive measure, even legitimately imposed by the United Nations, should be elaborated with utmost caution in order to avoid adverse effects on vulnerable communities; as for the sanctions arbitrarily employed by any country or group of countries as a means to achieve their own political and geopolitical goals, we condemn them strongly.
Therefore, we deem unacceptable the current widespread use of economic sanctions, especially by the USA and its allies. We demand that such policies be discontinued and ask people, organizations, and governments of goodwill to support our call.
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