Consumers International

Consumers International
Founded 1960 (1960)
Type Charity No. 1122155
Focus Consumer protection watchdog
Location
  • London, United Kingdom
Origins Formerly the International Organisation of Consumers Unions
Method Campaigning
Members
 220
Website www.consumersinternational.org

Consumers International (CI) is the world federation of consumer groups that serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers. It is based in London, England.

Founded on 1 April 1960, currently with over 220 member organisations in 115 countries around the world, the organisation continues to build a powerful international movement to empower and protect consumers everywhere.

In campaigning for the rights of consumers across the world, CI seeks to hold corporations to account and acts as a global watchdog against any behaviour that threatens, ignores or abuses the principles of consumer protection.

CI is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, company number 4337865 and registered charity number 1122155.

History

The organisation was first established in 1960 as the International Organisation of Consumers Unions (IOCU) by national consumer organisations. The original members recognised that they could build upon their individual strengths by working across national borders. The organisation then rapidly grew and soon became established as the voice of the international consumer movement on issues such as: product and food standards, health and patients’ rights, the environment and sustainable consumption, and the regulation of international trade and public utilities.

The founding of IOCU was initially planned by Elizabeth Schadee, who would later chair the board of the Netherlands' Consumentenbond, and Caspar Brook, who was the first director of the United Kingdom's Consumers' Association.[1] The two proposed an international conference to make plans that consumer product testing organizations worldwide should work more closely together.[1] The United States organization Consumers Union provided US$10,000 at the direction of Colston Warne to help fund the event.[1]

In January 1960, these three organizations sponsored the First International Conference on Consumer Testing in The Hague.[1] Thirty-four people representing seventeen consumer organizations in fourteen countries attended to discuss product testing and founding the International Organization of Consumers Unions as an international organization.[1] Belgium's Association des Consommateurs and the Australian Consumers' Association joined the three conference sponsors as the five founding organizations who would provide representatives for the international organization's initial council.[1]

Consumer Bill of Rights

On 15 March 1962[2] former US President John F. Kennedy said:

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.

There are eight basic consumer rights which include the rights to:

Membership

CI supports and represents over 220 member organisations in 115 countries around the world.

About two-thirds of member organisations are in developing countries, the other third in industrialised countries.

These members include a wide range of different independent consumer organisations and government organisations. Some independent member organisations are long-established, with hundreds of staff and millions of their own members, whilst others are semi-voluntary associations providing information and advice about basic services in some of the world's poorest countries.

CI also works with and hosts the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) – a forum of US and EU consumer organisations that develops and agrees on joint consumer policy recommendations to the US government and European Union to promote the consumer interest in EU and US policy making – at its office in London.

World Consumer Rights Day

WCRD's poster at Hanoi
First two chapters of Access to Knowledge for Consumers, a book from the Access to Knowledge campaign of Consumers International

On March 15, 1962 US President John F. Kennedy gave a speech on consumer rights which led to the creation of the Consumer Bill of Rights. Consumer rights activist Anwar Fazal later proposed the observance of a "World Consumer Rights Day" marking that date, and on 15 March 1983 consumer organizations began observing that date as an occasion to promote basic rights of consumers.[3]

World Consumer Rights Day is an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity within the international consumer movement. Participants observe the day by promoting the basic rights of all consumers, demanding that those rights are respected and protected, and protesting about the market abuses and social injustices which undermine them.

World Consumer Rights Day is celebrated on 22 March every year.[4]

Campaigns, projects and key issues

CI campaigns seek to achieve real changes in government policy and corporate behaviour, whilst raising awareness of consumer rights and responsibilities.

At the end of 2012, CI launched Your rights, our mission, its strategic plan for 2013 to 2015.

The plan includes four key programme areas combining CI’s work on international advocacy and organisational empowerment around a small number of issues.

The four programme areas are:

Financial services[5]
Food safety, security and nutrition[6]
Consumers access to reliable, affordable and safe communication networks[7]
Consumer justice and protection[8]

CI has also campaigned on issues like junk food markting and unethical drug promotion, corporate social responsibility and unethical or unsustainable behaviour by corporations and governments.

Offices

CI has five offices:[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Brobeck, Stephen (1997). Encyclopedia of the consumer movement. Santa Barbara, Calif. [u.a.]: ABC-Clio. pp. 175–179. ISBN 0874369878.
  2. ↑ Kennedy, John F. (March 15, 1962). "John F. Kennedy: Special Message to the Congress on Protecting the Consumer Interest.". presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  3. ↑ Brobeck, Stephen (1997). Encyclopedia of the consumer movement. Santa Barbara, Calif. [u.a.]: ABC-Clio. p. 176. ISBN 0874369878.
  4. ↑ http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Gallery.aspx?id=22_03_2016_007_007&type=A&eid=31808
  5. ↑ "Financial Services". Consumers International. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  6. ↑ "Food". Consumers International. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  7. ↑ "Digital". Consumersinternational.org. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  8. ↑ "Consumer justice and protection". Consumersinternational.org. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  9. ↑ "Contact us - Offices - Locator". Consumers International. Retrieved 2014-06-30.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Consumers International.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, March 30, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.