Voices for Change: the Consumer Right to Representation

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28 World Consumer Rights Day 2002: Voices for Change and this makes it even harder to unravel who caused what. The third problem is that all parties tend to be keen to claim ownership of any policy change that benefits the public, so there are often loudly competing versions of the history of consumer policy and these may get in the way of tracing real influences. Because of these difficulties, there are no ready-made evaluation tools available for monitoring the success of consumer representation and consultation. The consumer movement needs to do more development work in this field. Meanwhile, the best approach is to formulate a set of tests that reflect principles of good representation, and collect whatever evidence is available to assess the system and the work of the representatives within it, according to those criteria. Here are six areas to consider: • Is the representation system producing real change that genuinely benefits consumers? Are there concrete examples of successful and unsuccessful attempts to change policy and practice? • Are the representatives in touch with consumers? Do they have a strategy for keeping up-to-date with consumers’ needs, desires, behaviour and views? • Does the representation system enable all consumers to be represented, even when there are differences of interests and needs in the population? • Do the representatives conduct their work openly so that others can see what they do and the arguments they put forward? Do they publish reports explaining their work? • Are the representatives demonstrably independent? Are they becoming too close to the decision-makers they deal with? • If the representation system seems to be less effective than you expected or hoped, is there any obvious obstacle? Use these questions as a starting point. If you make progress in developing an assessment system, Consumers International will help you to share it with others. Volunteers, Compromise, Commitment Win UN Guidelines In 1975, the 8th CI World Congress passed the resolution that launched the ten-year campaign to get the UN to adopt a Model Code of Consumer Protection. The campaign was spearheaded by Esther Peterson, the consumer rights activist who was CI’s representative to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) during those years. In an article written for the 1991 World Consumer Rights Day publication, Peterson recalled some of the tools and tactics that went into this effort. “A great deal of work was conducted in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Some developed countries, backed mainly by business groups, expressed staunch opposition to the Guidelines. But that opposition was counterbalanced by strong pressure from consumer groups and non-governmental organisations urging adoption.” “CI lobbied hard to convince delegates at ECOSOC to support the Guidelines. There were many revisions, reflecting a broad range of concerns and compromises. One of the best instruments we had in lobbying for the Guidelines was a document prepared by volunteer law students describing laws and regulations spelled out in the Guidelines that were already in effect in the United States and other developed countries. Some developed countries said: “These work for us; we must see that they are extended to other countries that need the help.” “Delegations were visited, meetings were held, and discussions were conducted. CI insisted on holding firm to certain principles as negotiations took place. At one point, the opposition offered to support the passage of the Guidelines if references to food, water and pharmaceuticals were dropped. Of course, CI would not agree.” – from “Lobbying for the Guidelines” by Eileen Nic and Esther Peterson in the 1991 World Consumer Rights Day kit
World Consumer Rights Day 2002: Voices for Change 5 The State of Representation Results of a survey on representation conducted among CI members bring no big surprises and at least one encouraging finding. Despite the fact that specific ratings of “excellent” impacts are relatively few, respondents view the overall impact of consumer representation as more positive than negative. This overview is based on responses to a questionnaire distributed to CI members and analysed by the UK’s National Consumer Council for CI. Designed specifically for World Consumers Rights Day 2002, the survey paints an interesting picture of consumer representation around the globe. Nearly 70 CI member groups responded to a questionnaire in which they were asked to describe and rank various categories and impacts of their activities in consumer representation. Respondents were also invited to submit case studies of notable impact and/or need. Quantitative analysis of the responses was conducted by Adam Smith at the UK’s National Consumer Council and is summarised here. Selected case studies are included in Annexes B and C, with a copy of the sample questionnaire in Annex D. Fifty-four responses were received in time for the survey analysis: five from Asia/Pacific; nine from Africa; 17 from Latin America and the Caribbean; 23 from Europe. The combined data are significantly skewed by the data from Europe and Latin America, due to the high response rates from these regions. The principal overall conclusion to be drawn from the survey is that consumer representation is strongest in the sectors of consumer policy and protection, justice/ redress, environment, health, food security, food safety, technical standards and utilities. This is unsurprising, given that these are the most obvious and traditional areas for consumer advocacy. The survey relays the encouraging news that most respondents view the impact of consumer representation as more positive than negative. This is especially true for the issues of consumer policy and protection, justice/redress, sustainable consumption/ environment, food safety and technical standards and utilities – issues where consumer representation is most consolidated. Transport is the only example in which negative responses predominate. Only the smallest minority of responses see consumer representation as being “very poor” across all areas covered in the survey. Levels of representation taper off for competition, trade/economics, education, communication and information technology, social issues/poverty alleviation, price controls, gender/women, financial services regulation and transport. In the majority of cases where representation occurs, it is the responding organisation that represents consumers. In some cases, this role is carried out in conjunction with other organisations. The data from each region was fairly consistent with the overall data, with the following exception: in Africa, there is a relatively low level of representation in justice/redress, and a high level of representation in social issues/poverty alleviation. 29
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Voices for Change: the Consumer Right to Representation

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