Guide on Sexual Diversity and Gender Approach and Identity in Consumer Relationships

In an effort to “equal the balance”, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, issued a Guide on Sexual Diversity and Gender Approach and Identity in Consumer Relationships.

The purpose of the Guide is to eliminate all forms of discrimination and closing gender gaps and inequality in Colombian society.

The recommendations incorporated in the Guide constitute a call to respect and guarantee equity, as well as to prevent and eliminate any type of discrimination in the field of consumption.

The elimination of discrimination based on gender and diversity in consumer relations is also based on article 43 of the Colombian Political Constitution, which prohibits discrimination against women, and on various international conventions ratified by Colombia. Thus, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1979) and its Optional Protocol (1999) and the INTER-AMERICAN CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION, PUNISHMENT AND ERADICATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN "CONVENTION OF BELEM DO PARA" (1994) condemn discrimination against women “in all its forms” and also clarify that the obligation of non-discrimination is not only the responsibility of the State but also of companies.

The obligation of non-discrimination by suppliers, producers, advertisers, consumer associations and media sectors also arises from Law 1257 of 2008, which establishes that “civil society organizations, associations, companies, organized commerce, economic unions and other legal and natural persons, have the responsibility of taking an active part in achieving the elimination of violence and discrimination against women” and, therefore, they must “refrain from doing anything that involves discrimination against women”.

Concerning sexual orientation and gender identity, the Colombian Constitutional Court has followed the Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity or Yogyakarta Principles (2006), which compile the obligations of States under international human rights law in the face of global concerns about practices that “impose norms regarding sexual orientation and gender identity on people through customs, laws and violence, and seek to control how people live their personal relationships and how they define themselves”.

The United Nations Consumer Protection Guidelines (2016) state that “businesses should avoid practices that harm consumers, particularly vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers”.

Some of the guidelines are:

• Integrate a gender and diversity perspective when designing, assembling or manufacturing a certain product and eliminating stereotypes that may influence the production or design process.
• Integrate, when reasonable, a universal design approach to products so that, regardless of the person who consumes them, they satisfy the need or functionality for which they have been produced.
• Consider during the design or manufacture of a product whether the product puts the health or life of consumers at particular risk due to their gender.
• Refrain from including in information and advertising messages that promote practices that are risky to health or that associate biological and/or physical characteristics of people with negative aspects such as pain or shame.
• Advertising aimed at products for boys, girls and adolescents should not reinforce a certain model associated with prejudices about femininity or masculinity or stereotypes based on gender roles.

The guide is accessible in the following link: https://www.sic.gov.co/sites/default/files/Guia_Diversidad_Sexual_y_enfoque_e_identidad_de_genero_VF.pdf