Voices for Change: the Consumer Right to Representation

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12 World Consumer Rights Day 2002: Voices for Change Day provides the focal point for on-going campaigns to getting the consumer voice heard. There are a number of ways Voices for Change can be used to further consumer representation and promote the consumer interest. These include both short term actions around March 15, 2002 itself and longer term campaigns. Action prior to WCRD As part of the representation survey, consumer groups were asked where they felt consumer representation was needed. This can provide the basis for targeted campaigns during 2002. Identify one body, forum or institution where you feel a consumer voice should be heard. Develop arguments needed to persuade the body to include the consumer perspective using Voices for Change – both from the theoretical perspective and using examples from other countries. Campaign for representation through petitions, media work and/or directly with the body itself. For example, write a letter six to four weeks in advance of March 15 outlining the case and asking for a response before March 15. On March 15 itself, you can either publicise the lack of response or the increased recognition of the need for consumer representation and highlight the main issues you will be campaigning for from within the body. You can also repeat this exercise by identifying a second body and targeting them with a letter and special scrutiny. An internal action for consumer organisations is to evaluate the impact of where your group currently represents consumers. Assess whether the time and resources spent justify the outcome. If not, you can write to the forum concerned and explain why you feel that you are not participating effectively: is this due to the body not taking the consumer views seriously? Or to the possibility that more resources are needed to research and represent the consumer perspective? Another useful exercise for internal and external use is to draw up a list of changes your organisation has made to policies or implementation as a result of the representation process. Action on WCRD On March 15, 2002 itself, events should be organised to highlight representation campaigns. For example, seminars or round tables on the importance of consumer representation in decision-making can be organised. Make a statement linked to the body consumers are not represented on. Use the day to publicise how your organisation is representing people’s views in different forums and how it is linked to the international consumer movement as it pursues representation at other levels. Use March 15 to promote the consumer perspective and your organisation. Consumers International will be identifying key regional and global institutions that need to improve consumer participation and highlight ways in which this can be done. After WCRD Longer term action includes assessing representation strategies and identifying bodies which either need to be established or need to include the consumer perspective. Guidelines for transparency and accountability can be developed and publicised. Assess what is needed in terms of skills, knowledge or resources to ensure that you effectively represent consumers. Responses from CI members on what needs to be done to help them build a stronger voice will be taken into account in future programme development and campaigns. Depending on the outcome of WCRD 2002, CI will develop training components on representation to support different CI regional and global programmes. This may also be a feature of CI’s next World Congress, to be held in Portugal in late 2003. Further resources on representation can be found in Annex E.
World Consumer Rights Day 2002: Voices for Change 2 Consumer Representation and Social Justice Rhoda Karpatkin, in an adaptation of a speech at Consumers International’s 16th World Congress, outlines the increasing need for consumer representation in the face of globalisation. For years, we at Consumers International have talked about our important role in civil society as consumer advocates before global bodies. We have built carefully on our good work and the respect we have earned. But as the role of civil society in global decision-making has changed dramatically, we find ourselves very much in the middle of this transformation. Consumers International (CI) was an early and thoughtful advocate of the consumer interest. We have spoken out on economic and policy issues for decades, and have built a global consumer movement country-by-country, region-by-region, and organisation-byorganisation. We have spoken well, but we can’t claim to have been heard. The Globalisation of Protest Events at the World Trade Organisation 1999 Ministerial meeting in Seattle changed many things. Today civil society is speaking in a new global voice, or more accurately, new global voices. Protesters and advocates in Seattle showed the world how strongly they objected to the dark side of globalisation. CI was well represented at Seattle. We spoke inside the WTO forum, and lobbied the WTO and national governments. It was an important opportunity, but the protesters outside captured the headlines. They helped slow the WTO’s march toward a new round of negotiations. Afterwards, The Economist magazine noted how effectively different groups with varying agendas worked together toward somewhat common ends. While the editorialists found the protesters distasteful, they were impressed with how they had mobilised and achieved their goals. That happened, the magazine said, because the Internet has made it possible for diverse groups to communicate and rally together without the bureaucracy and expense of meetings. New coalitions are being built on-line and expertise is being shared. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have also been the target of protesters. At the September 2000 meeting in Prague, protesters were again in the streets. This time, however, the World Bank was more in step with the times. There were about 350 civil society organisations accredited to its meeting. They had a role to play, and indeed had some input into World Bank policy development even prior to the meeting. They also had some influence on the approach and content of the World Bank’s Development Report. Governments may resent this inconvenience, but it is a natural outgrowth of the very globalisation that they promote. If globalisation is inevitable, as is now claimed, and if the mission of governments’ trade policies is to advance globalisation as it is now occurring, then the participation of civil society – both in the streets and in the meeting halls – is equally inevitable. The consumer perspective is much needed now. Governments have shaped globalisation 13
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Voices for Change: the Consumer Right to Representation

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