Consumers International launches bid for UN recognition of World Consumer Rights Day

This week at the UNCTAD Roundtable on the ‘UNGCP International

Framework for the Protection of Consumers’ I was delighted to announce that Consumers International is calling for World Consumer Rights Day to be formally recognised by the UN as an international day within the UN calendar.

World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is a fantastic annual celebration that unites consumers around the world. Now is the time for the UN to recognise this day formally and in doing so deliver even more to raise awareness of consumer rights.

For the last 33 years, consumer organisations around the world have joined together on March 15 to mark World Consumer Rights Day; a day that plays a vital role in raising awareness of consumer rights around the globe. The event is regularly marked in more than 90 countries around the world and a wide mix of consumers, consumer organisations, government consumer agencies and international organisations take part.

Formally recognising World Consumer Rights Day as an International Day as already exists for women, the environment, health, children, amongst many others, could help this important annual moment play an even more powerful role in raising awareness of consumer rights and highlighting inadequate consumer protection.

Given the historic adoption of the revised UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection that was achieved at the end of 2015, which recognised important new protections for consumers, there is now an urgent need to raise awareness of these protections for consumers around the globe.  UN recognition of World Consumer Rights Day can play a crucial part in this. At a time when Consumers International has unprecedented engagement from Consumer Protection Agencies around the world, we have an excellent opportunity to campaign for UN recognition for the most important day in the global consumer rights calendar.

World Consumer Rights Day

It is a truly international event. Previous themes for the day have included campaigns on basic rights, safe food, GMOs, trade, public utilities, healthy diets, financial services, phone rights, energy. The day is used to raise awareness of existing rights and shine a light on areas where there is inadequate consumer protection in place. Celebrated by the majority of countries around the world activities marking the day have included media stunts, public meetings, marches, social media campaigns and the publication of test results, surveys and opinion pieces.

The date itself was chosen to commemorate a Special Message to the US Congress made by President John F Kennedy in 1962 in which he formally addressed the issue of consumer rights. He was the first world leader to do so.

A global challenge

Despite this global celebration, we all know that many consumers still face real challenges in their everyday lives, from a lack of access or poor quality goods and services, as well as unfair practices. There is much more to be done to raise awareness of consumer rights amongst consumers, governments and business.

As President John F Kennedy said in his message to the US Congress in 1962,

'Consumers by definition, include us all. 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.'

UN recognition for WCRD would be another step towards meeting the challenge that President Kennedy set out more than 50 years ago.

Official UN recognition

Official UN recognition can help to put consumer rights on the map of even more organisations, governments, companies and media outlets. It can help to raise awareness by engaging more people, in more activities, in more countries.

For our Members we expect it will make it more possible for them to get coverage of their activities and secure the participation of senior figures from government or business. It will also help to introduce consumer rights to new groups and help them realise the contribution that consumer rights can make to fairer and stronger economies, poverty reduction, improved health and safety and many other issues that affect people today.  At this time of promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals there is further justification for the need for UN recognition.

Achieving UN recognition requires the support of Member states at the UN General Assembly. But, with the adoption of the revised UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection – and the urgent need to raise awareness of these protections, alongside the promotion of the UN Sustainable development Goals and the quality of our engagement with national Consumer Protection Agencies, we feel we are in the best possible place to put World Consumer Rights Day on the UN map.

We are asking CI Members to contact their Regional Networker for more information on how to get involved.

UN Sustainable Development Goals and consumer protection: A shared 2030 Agenda

With the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals this weekend, the world will take an important step towards a more sustainable future. But the journey can be made so much easier with consumer protection as a companion, writes Consumers International's (CI) Director General Amanda Long.

On Friday, UN Member States will adopt an ambitious set of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals build on the work of the Millennium Development Goals, which focused on poverty eradication and fighting hunger, and will take a more inclusive, universal approach with the addition of new measures to reduce inequality, tackle climate change and environmental degradation, promote peace, prosperity and sustainable economic growth.

With slightly less fanfare, but no less significance to consumer organisations, the revised UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection (UNGCP) are also expected to be adopted by this year’s UN General Assembly. Consumers International have been at the heart of this revision process, working with the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Member States to ensure they are both stronger and more relevant to consumers in today’s global marketplace.

I strongly believe that much more should be made of this opportunity to link these two important global agendas. Consumers are at the heart of many of the issues dealt with in the UN SDGs and it will be a missed opportunity not to use the UN Guidelines to promote consumer welfare, sustainable consumption and the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.  

People’s ability to consume, the consumption choices available to them and whether they are treated fairly as consumers, fundamentally affects the quality of their lives and of the environment around them. 

The UN SDGs’ ambition is commendable, but to meet this ambition, everyone needs to be on board. Consumers are the largest constituency in the economy and should not be ignored.

Consumer protection provides a clear means to curb inequalities and to promote fairness, justice and environmental protection in an increasingly complex global economy. 

It ensures that people everywhere are treated fairly and with dignity in the marketplace, and have access to safe, healthy, sustainable products and services. This is particularly important for poor and vulnerable people who are often the most exploited. 

There is still time and opportunity. Once the UN SDGs are formally adopted, policy makers’ attention will turn to getting their message across to the public, and to developing ways to measure their progress.

The public will gain a greater understanding of the UN SDGs if their rights as consumers are protected and promoted through the UN SDGs. And a number of the UN SDGs will be achieved far more effectively by including the implementation of the UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection as an indicator to help measure progress towards the achievement of the UN SDGs.

UNEP, the UN Environment Programme, also recognises the UNGCP’s value and is calling for the same indicator to monitor progress on the UN SDG on sustainable consumption and production. But the UNGCP’s impact covers far more than simply helping people buy the most sustainable option available.

The UN SDGs’ objectives to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and promote shared prosperity, fundamentally rely on how consumers think and act, and how their opportunities, choices and rights are protected – in the developed and developing world.

The eight Millennium Development Goals made great progress in some areas, but fell short in others. The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals need to draw on everybody and every policy, to stand any chance of achieving their objectives by 2030. 

Consumer protection is an essential partner for this journey. Let’s not miss this opportunity. 

How consumer protection can help deliver the UN’s new vision of shared prosperity

The world will be missing a big opportunity if we don’t make greater links between consumer protection and sustainable development, explains CI Director General Amanda Long. 

This week, UN member states are coming together in New York to begin to define a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These will replace the UN’s influential Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and will be launched in September 2015.

September will also see the final revision of the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection (UNGCP), to make them more relevant to consumers in today’s global marketplace.

Consumers International believes a big opportunity will be missed, if we don’t make greater connections between consumer protection and sustainable development.

Despite consumers being at the heart of many of the issues dealt with in the SDGs, there is little or no mention of consumer protection. 

Consumer protection and empowerment should be recognised as central to sustainable development. It ensures that people everywhere are treated fairly and with dignity in the marketplace, and have access to safe and healthy products, and services. This is particularly important for poor and vulnerable people who are often amongst the most exploited.

Consumer protection and empowerment provides a clear means to curb inequalities and to promote fairness, justice and prosperity in an increasingly complex global economy.

To give just three examples of why consumer protection is important to the SDGs:

• Proposed Goal 2 aims to ‘End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition'. To achieve this, consumers need access to nutritious and affordable food which follows food safety standards.

• Proposed Goal 3 aims to ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages'. This means that consumers need access to healthcare but also protection against unsafe products and services that cause ill health, injury or death.

• Proposed Goal 8 calls for ‘sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth'. It is hard to see how this can be achieved unless consumers are represented and empowered to play their part in the economy. 

Similar points can be made in relation to almost every one of the proposed Goals.

The most effective way to make the link between consumer protection and the SDGs, is to make 

implementation of the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection one of the targets in the SDGs.

This will provide real practical support for consumer protection:

• It will raise the profile of consumer protection with international and national organisations and agencies who have not previously seen it as part of their agenda.

• It will require the international community to measure and report on the implementation of the UN Guidelines on a regular basis.

This is why CI is calling for the UNGCP to be included under the proposed Goal on the ‘means of implementation and global partnership’, with the following truly cross-cutting target:

• By 2030 ensure all countries have implemented the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection. 

People’s ability to consume, the consumption choices available to them and whether they are treated fairly as consumers, fundamentally affects the quality of their lives and of the environment around them.

Clearly then, the SDGs’ objectives to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and promote shared prosperity, fundamentally rely on how consumers think and act, and how their opportunities and choices are protected – in the developed and developing world.

CI is looking forward to further engagement on a more inclusive and consumer-focused development agenda throughout this vital year – to help make shared prosperity a reality. 

The process for the revision of the UN Guidelines enters a definitive stage

It is a crucial period for CI’s work to ensure global consumer guidelines are updated to meet new challenges, CI consumer policy expert Antonino Serra Cambaceres says. 

The global consumer movement faces a big challenge. We have to convince governments to support our United Nations Guidelines on Consumer Protection (UNGCP) proposals.

It is a complex task and time is of the essence. Governments, more specifically government missions accredited to UNCTAD, hold the fate of this process in their hands.

Therefore, the coordinated work we have to do will be essential to obtain their support.

We can ensure the Guidelines remain the global benchmark for consumer protection - and we have an obligation to reflect the needs and aspirations of millions of consumers worldwide.

If we work in a coordinated manner, this effort will certainly bear fruit.

It’s important to look back on how we arrived at this point.

In 2013, CI presented a proposal which was developed with input from its Members.

In this proposal, we identified issues that needed new guidelines - financial services, e-commerce and energy among others - as well as those in which it was necessary to adapt existing guidelines.

Since then CI continued to participate in the review process and sent responses to the four working groups that were created in 2013 – namely  Financial Services, Electronic Commerce, Implementation and Other Issues.

In these responses we reaffirmed the points that we felt should be updated.

This first stage of this work ended on August 15 when UNCTAD released a report called "Report on the modalities for the review of the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection".

The publication of this report marked the second stage of the process. UNCTAD has requested all stakeholders - governments, international organisations, civil society groups – comment on the report so that work groups can develop concrete proposals.

This means that from now until October 2014 working groups will identify areas and issues on which there is some consensus to progress the update of the Guidelines.

That’s why this second stage is very important. UNCTAD expects proposed revised texts of the new guidelines, which will take the form of a resolution, will be discussed at a meeting to be held in Geneva, in January 2015.

The draft resolution will be due in November this year, for further comments before January’s meeting.

The 7th UN Review Conference, to be held in July 2015, will approve the draft resolution to be submitted to the UN General Assembly for adoption.