DUSHANBE, March 15, Asia-Plus — Every year, around the world, World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is celebrated on March 15. It marks the day President John F. Kennedy told the US Congress: “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.”
The theme of this year”s WCRD is Junk Food Generation – the Consumers International (CI) campaign to stop the marketing of unhealthy food to children. CI is asking the World Health Organization (WHO) for an international code to ban the marketing of unhealthy food to children.
Around the world CI member organizations are uniting in an international day of action to highlight the damage done by junk food marketing and to urge government ministers to support the Code ahead of the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2008.
Press release issued by the European Commission Delegation in Tajikistan says the EU-wide campaign raises general awareness about consumer issues and invites citizens to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the single market. “Know your rights! Use your rights!” is the message of the European Consumer Day.
“We want to put consumers back where they belong, as a driving force for competition and for the economy,” said Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva.
Consumers are often left operating in the dark – when they cannot compare prices clearly, cannot see product information or when they faced with an information overload. The key role of consumer policy is to break down the barriers, particularly at the retail level, that are holding consumers back from making informed choices.
The European Union provides its consumers with the wide range of rights. They cover such areas as air passenger rights, unfair commercial practices, contractual rights, food information, toy”s safety, Internet shopping, timeshare and travel and financial services.
The Commission together with the Member States has created a network of European Consumer Centers (ECC-Net) and “mobile info centers” to educate the consumers and help citizens in case of violations of their rights, including in cross-border transactions.
There is also a developed rapid alert system in the EU. RAPEX, RASFF and REACH systems respectively cover non-food, food and chemical products to track down all dangerous consumer goods and quickly remove them from the market. Each year the EU also awards its Consumer Champion and this time the prize was given to a Finnish Agency for an interactive computer game educating young adults about consumer rights and responsibilities, particularly concerning Internet and mobile shopping.
In the meantime, a source at Tojikmatlubot (Tajikistan’s consumers’ cooperatives) said that no events have been held in Tajikistan to mark Consumer Rights Day.
