WCRD

Last updated: 12 October 2009

History and purpose

World Consumer Rights Day 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 mobilising citizen action.

Consumer organisations around the world use materials produced by Consumers International to generate local initiatives and media coverage for their work over the coming year.

World Consumer Rights Day 2003-2009

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

The four basic consumer rights

World Consumer Rights Day has its origins in former US President John F. Kennedy's declaration of four basic consumer rights:

• the right to safety
• the right to be informed
• the right to choose
• the right to be heard.
  

To these, the consumer movement through Consumers International has in recent years added four more rights:

• 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.'

World Consumer Rights Day was first observed on 15 March 1983. 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 organisations.

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, 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.

How are consumer rights defined?

• The right to satisfaction of basic needs - To have access to basic, essential goods and services: adequate food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, public utilities, water and sanitation.
• The right to safety - To be protected against products, production processes and services which are hazardous to health or life.
• The right to be informed - To be given the facts needed to make an informed choice, and to be protected against dishonest or misleading advertising and labelling.
• The right to choose - To be able to select from a range of products and services, offered at competitive prices with an assurance of satisfactory quality.
• The right to be heard - To have consumer interests represented in the making and execution of government policy, and in the development of products and services.
• The right to redress - To receive a fair settlement of just claims, including compensation for misrepresentation, shoddy goods or unsatisfactory services.
• The right to consumer education - To acquire knowledge and skills needed to make informed, confident choices about goods and services, while being aware of basic consumer rights and responsibilities and how to act on them.
• The right to a healthy environment -To live and work in an environment which is non-threatening to the well-being of present and future generations.

How is World Consumer Rights Day observed?

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.

Whatever their objectives, they share the same underlying aim of bringing about important and needed benefits for consumers. 

Global map

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