United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection (as expanded in 1999).
 (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian)

United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection with  new elements on sustainable consumption (Report of CSD-7, Chapter I, draft resolution I) 

Background 

At the request of ECOSOC, the CSD prepared an extension of the UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection to include sustainable consumption. An Inter-Regional Expert Group Meeting on the extension of the UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection , hosted by the Environment Secretariat of the State Government of São Paulo, was held on 28-30 January 1998. This meeting was organised by the DSD, the Federative Republic of Brazil, and the State Government of São Paulo, upon the request of ECOSOC at its substantive session of 1997. A background document "Consumer Protection and Sustainable Consumption: New Guidelines for the Global Consumer" was drafted by the DSD for the meeting. 

A Report of the Secretary General , "Consumer Protection Guidelines for Sustainable Consumption", based on the São Paulo meeting, was submitted to the Commission on Sustainable Development at its 6th session in 1998. 

Based  on the text drafted by the São Paulo  meeting, and on informal intergovernmental consultations held at the UN in late 1998, CSD-7 adopted a revised text for the Guidelines. That text was endorsed by the Economic and Social Council  in July 1999 and adopted by  the General Assembly in its decision 54/449.