Consumer Rights

1. Consumer Rights Helen McCallum Consumers International 1 March 2012

2. About Consumers International • 220 member organisations in 115 countries • Funded by membership fees and donors • Global research and campaigns through our members • Champion consumer rights within international decision-making processes

3. About Consumers International • Our Mission is to build a powerful movement to champion consumer rights and to help protect and empower consumers everywhere. • Our Vision is of a world where people have access to safe and sustainable goods and services, exercising their individual rights as consumers and using the force of their collective power for the good of consumers everywhere.

4. About Consumers International • A brief history of the consumer rights movement • The challenges to consumer rights • How we are meeting those challenges • What the future holds for consumer rights

5. About Consumers International

6. International Organisation of Consumer Unions (IOCU, later CI) founded in 1960 • An international information exchange for consumer product testing

7. “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.”

8. Right to safety • Right to be informed • Right to choose • Right to be heard

9. The right to safety

10. The right to be informed

11. The right to choose

12. The right to be heard

13. The right to satisfaction of basic needs • The right to redress • The right to a healthy environment • The right to consumer education

14. The right to satisfaction of basic needs

15. The right to redress

16. The right to a healthy environment

17. The right to consumer education

18. The future of consumer rights

19. The future of consumer rights

20. Missing consumer rights?

21. HMcCallum@consint.org