BRICS member states strongly oppose all forms of discrimination in sports — declaration

World October 23, 18:51

For the first time, athletes from countries beyond the BRICS member states participated in this year’s event in Kazan

KAZAN, October 23. /TASS/. The BRICS countries resolutely oppose all forms of discrimination in sports competitions, according to the Kazan Declaration adopted at the 16th BRICS Summit on Wednesday.

"We strongly oppose any form of discrimination on grounds of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, economic or other status of athletes," the document reads.

"We emphasize that all BRICS countries have rich traditional sport culture and agree to support each other in the promotion of traditional and indigenous sports among BRICS countries and around the world," according to the declaration.

"We attach great importance to the role of BRICS in developing sports ties among BRICS countries, including mass, youth, school and student sports, high-priority sports, parasport, national and traditional sports. In this regard we highly appreciate Russia’s Chairship for hosting the BRICS Games in Kazan in June, which brought together participants in 27 sports disciplines," the document added.

The 2024 BRICS Games (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) were held in Kazan from June 12 to 23 and featured competitions in 27 different sports. The BRICS Games are an annual multi-sport tournament organized by the country holding the rotating chair of the association.

For the first time, athletes from countries beyond the BRICS member states participated in this year’s event in Kazan. In total, athletes from over 80 countries took part in the 2024 BRICS Games this summer.

The Kazan Declaration is titled ‘Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security’ and the document is 43 pages long containing 134 provisions.

The 16th BRICS Summit, which is the key event of Russia’s chairmanship in the association, is being held in Kazan on October 22-24. The BRICS group was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa joining it in 2011.

On January 1, 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates became its full-fledged members. On the same day, Russia assumed one-year rotating chairmanship of BRICS.

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