World Consumer Rights Day

World Consumer Rights Day will be held on March 15th. It is an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity within the international consumer movement. More importantly it is a time for promoting the basic rights of all consumers, for demanding that those rights are respected and protected, and for protesting the market abuses and social injustices which undermine them. World Consumer Rights Day was first observed on 15 March 1983, and has since become an important occasion for mobilizing citizen action. Two years later, on 9 April 1985, the United Nations' General Assembly adopted the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection, following a decade of hard lobbying by Consumers International, then known as IOCU, and consumer organizations. Consumer organizations around the world use materials produced by Consumers International to generate local initiatives and media coverage for their work over the coming year.

Available consumer rights:

• The right to safety
• The right to be informed
• The right to choose
• The right to be heard
• The right to satisfaction of basic needs
• The right to redress
• The right to education
• The right to a healthy environment

Together these eight rights form the basis for ongoing work by Consumers International and consumer groups worldwide. 'Consumers by definition, include us all,' Kennedy said in his 15 March 1962 declaration to the US Congress. 'They are the largest economic group, affecting and affected by almost every public and private economic decision. Yet they are the only important group... whose views are often not heard.' The guidelines embrace the principles of the eight consumer rights and provide a framework for strengthening national consumer protection polices. With the UN's adoption of the guidelines in 1985, consumer rights were finally elevated to a position of international recognition and legitimacy, acknowledged by developed and developing countries alike. Yet they can continue to be ignored or trivialised by governments, producers and powerful interests. World Consumer Right Day draws attention to such violations, and provides a platform for consumer groups to address them in the countries where they operate.

World Consumer Rights Day depends on local initiatives, planned and carried out by consumer organisations on every continent. Initiatives can take the shape of special campaigns, press conferences, public exhibitions, workshops, street events or new publications, to name only a few possibilities. World Consumer Rights Day initiatives sometimes continue well beyond 15 March, forming the basis for long-term work by groups. World Consumers Rights Day initiatives can be concerned with the foods we eat, the medicines we take or the products we use in our homes. They can draw attention to unethical marketing practices, expose hazardous technologies and production processes, or point out the need for consumer legislation and its enforcement.

History of World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD)
15 March is World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD), an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity within the international consumer movement. It marks the date in 1962 President John F Kennedy first outlined the definition of Consumer Rights.

WCRD is an opportunity to promote the basic rights of all consumers, for demanding that those rights are respected and protected, and for protesting the market abuses and social injustices which undermine them. WCRD was first observed on 15 March 1983, and has since become an important occasion for mobilising citizen action.

The theme for 2013 is 'Consumer Justice Now!'.

Previous year themes:
2012: Our money, our rights: campaigning for real choice in financial services
2011: Consumers for Fair Financial Services
2010: Our money, our rights
2009: Junk Food Generation - CI's campaign to stop the marketing of unhealthy food to children
2008: Junk Food Generation - CI's campaign to stop the marketing of unhealthy food to children
2007: Unethical Drug Promotion
2006: Energy - Sustainable Access for All
2005: Call for action on GMOs
2004: Consumers and water
2003: Corporate control of the food chain: the GM link

What are all the consumer rights?
Generally accepted basic consumer rights are (1) Right to safety: protection from hazardous goods. (2) Right to be informed: availability of information required for weighing alternatives, and protection from false and misleading claims in advertising and labeling practices. (3) Right to choose: availability of competing goods and services that offer alternatives in terms of price, quality, service. (4) Right to be heard: assurance that government will take full cognizance of the concerns of consumers, and will act with sympathy and dispatch through statutes and simple and expeditious administrative procedures.

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