Submission to the World Health Organisation on the Global Alcohol Action Plan 2022-2030

This submission is the FMF’s official comment on the first draft of the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s "global alcohol action plan 2022-2030 to strengthen implementation of the global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol."

The FMF regards alcohol consumption as a personal lifestyle choice that only the individual consumer is competent to exercise. The authority to decide what goes into our bodies lies with each individual person, as guaranteed by both international law and the South African Constitution, rather than with governments, academics, or subject experts.

The role of government is to protect people from unwanted and uninvited trespass into their domains of choice from third parties. To the extent that alcohol abuse contributes to this phenomenon – for instance, in the form of domestic violence and road traffic accidents – it is arguable that there is a role for government to play.

The FMF is therefore concerned that the WHO continues to focus on the consumption of alcohol rather than alcohol-related harm in its proposed action plan. This has the perverse effect of the WHO seeking to inhibit the freedom of unharmful, peaceful individuals, rather than that of those who are susceptible to causing harm to others.

To read the full submission click HERE.