About 400 delegates at the group's 16th world congress in Durban last week called on governments and international agencies to prohibit the use of patents on life forms, impose a moratorium on the cultivation and marketing of genetically modified foods and develop policies that guarantee universal access to health care.
All consumers have the right to sufficient and safe food.
Consumers International supported the World Health Organisation's strategic document entitled Health for All, which advocates the development of effective primary health care policies that guarantee access to health care for all. Yussuf Saloojee, executive director of the National Council Against Smoking, pointed to an about-turn by the tobacco industry that saw it admit that smoking causes cancer. It is a case of bend with the wind or be broken. In her closing address to the congress, trade and industry deputy minister Lindiwe Hendricks argued for greater consumer protection. Other studies, she said, had also raised worrying findings.