World Consumer Rights Day: achieving the UN recognition of World Consumer Rights Day

This article was automatically translated from HIBAPRESS, the Arabic version:

Hibapress-Raba-onu

World Consumer Rights Day has been celebrated every year on March 15 since 1983. This day is an opportunity to recall that consumers have rights and that they can exercise them.

The proposal asks to define the week every year in the week on March 15. The proposal will now be sent to the United Nations General Assembly at the end of this year for a final decision.

Last year, Consumers International set out to achieve the UN recognition of World Consumer Rights Day. During consultations, it appeared that the inclusion of the term “rights” was not acceptable to all Member States because of the different status that the rights and protections in each country has. Since the decisions of the UNCTED intergovernmental group of intergovernmental experts for consumer protection policies and laws (GIE) are adopted by consensus, no progress was possible unless you modify the proposal to name it “World Consumer Protection Week”. Consequently, we discussed with our members to support the recognition by the UN of a day or an international week of consumer protection, even if the term “rights” is not used. The majority of members supported this proposal by considering it as a positive compromise.

If the proposal is adopted at the United Nations General Assembly at the end of this year, Consumers International will continue to observe on March 15 as a World Consumer Rights Day during the recognized UN week. This will mark a notable progress for our community and the work it does.