Consumers International (CI) the only independent global campaigning voice for consumers, with over 220 member organizations, has furnished the following article for the edification of consumers.

The theme for 2008 is Lunch Box Challenge.

World Consumer Rights Day

Mar 15, 2008

World Consumer Rights Day – an annual day for celebration and solidarity in the international consumer movement. Consumer organizations around the world hold marches and rallies, seminars and workshops, and produce leaflets, publications, radio and television programmes to mark this day.

World Consumer Rights Day has its origins in former US President John F. Kennedy’s declaration of four basic consumer rights:

- the right to safety

- the right to be informed

- the right to choose

- the right to be heard

To these, the consumer movement through Consumers International has in recent years added four more rights:

* the right to satisfaction of basic needs

* the right to redress

* the right to education

* the right to a healthy environment

Together these eight rights form the basis for ongoing work by Consumers International and consumer groups worldwide.

“Consumers by definition include us all,” Kennedy said in his 15 March 1962 declaration to the US Congress. “They are the largest economic group, affecting and affected by almost every public and private economic decision. Yet they are the only important group