World Consumer Rights Day 2015 observed with the theme Helping consumers choose healthy diets

15 March: World Consumer Rights Day

The World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) 2015 was observed on 15 March 2015. The theme for the WCRD 2015 is Helping consumers choose healthy diets.

The theme was taken up by the Consumers International (CI) because unhealthy diets are linked to four of the ten biggest causes of death viz., overweight and obesity, high blood pressure, high blood glucose and high cholesterol worldwide. According to an estimate by the CI obesity alone is estimated to cost 2 trillion US dollars per year.

WCRD is an opportunity to promote the basic rights of all consumers, for demanding that those rights are respected and protected, and for protesting the market abuses and social injustices which undermine them.

Every year, the CI chooses a theme and organizes various consumer awareness activities in close coordination with the governmental and non-governmental organizations.

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

The World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is observed on 15 March every year to commemorate the historic address given by the then US President John F Kennedy to the US congress in 1962 in which he outlined the definition of consumer rights for the first time. He was the first world leader to formally define ‘consumer rights’.

WCRD was first observed on 15 March 1983 and has since become an important occasion for mobilizing citizen action.

In 2014, WCRD was observed with the theme Fix Our Phone Rights