Please Read: The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
by
Tom Pearson suggested we be aware of this information:
The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
The FCTC is no ordinary convention -It is potentially a Public Health Movement!
The spectacular rise and spread of tobacco consumption around the world is a challenge and an opportunity for the World Health Organization. The challenge comes in seeking global solutions for a problem that cuts across national boundaries, cultures, societies and socio-economic strata. The unique and massive public health impact of tobacco provides the WHO an opportunity to propose to the world a first comprehensive response to deal with the silent epidemic as the tobacco menace has often been called. The Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) has begun preliminary work in this direction. On 24 May 1999, the World Health Assembly (WHA), the governing body of the World Health Organization (WHO), paved the way for multilateral negotiations to begin on a set of rules and regulations that will govern the global rise and spread of tobacco and tobacco products in the next century. The 191-member WHA unanimously backed a resolution calling for work to begin on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - a new legal instrument that could address issues as diverse as tobacco advertising and promotion, agricultural diversification, smuggling, taxes and subsidies. A record 50 nations took the floor to pledge financial and political support for the Convention. The list included the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, major tobacco growers and exporters as well as several countries in the developing and developed world which face the brunt of the tobacco industry's marketing and promotion pitch. The European Union and 5 NGOs also made statements in support of the Convention and the Director-General's leadership in global tobacco control.
The FCTC's benefits to countries are many. The most significant one is that with the Convention as a pathfinder and coordination vehicle, national public health policies, tailored around national needs, can be advanced without the risk of being undone by transnational phenomena (e.g. smuggling).