HEALTH: NGOs Take Active Part in Tobacco Control Treaty Negotiations

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

MEXICO CITY, Oct 29 2000 (IPS) - The international anti- smoking movement is gearing up to assert its voice more forcefully as negotiations begin to draft the world’s first public health treaty that seeks to control the global use of tobacco.

Activists due to take the lead in this regard will be members of the anti-smoking non-governmental organisations (NGOs) officially recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is sponsoring this international treaty known formally as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

They have been permitted to “attend and follow the negotiations” and “make interventions” at the discretion of the government delegates chairing each of the committees set up for the FCTC, say members of the movement.

Such a high-profile presence of anti-smoking NGOs is imperative, given the role they have played to combat the spread of tobacco use, members of the movement add.

For Mary Assunta, the co-ordinator of an anti-tobacco group in Malaysia, “NGOs more than governments have been in the forefront of tobacco control activities in most countries, particularly the developing world”.

For Ross Hammond, on the other hand, an NGO presence during the drafting of this international convention will serve to stem any efforts by tobacco multinationals to weaken the language of the treaty.

“We expect heavy resistance from the tobacco industry,” adds Hammond, a consultant for the United States-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.. “They can derail the treaty by putting immense pressure on government delegates involved in shaping the FCTC.”

This quest by the anti-smoking activists has already received a warm reception by two countries Canada and Thailand. During the first round of negotiations held from Oct. 16 to 23 at the World Health Organisation (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, the delegates from both countries advocated the need for a “strong NGO role”.

“NGO participation is essential if the FCTC is to be reflective of civil society’s public health goals. Good policy is public policy openly arrived at,” remarked Ed Aiston, the chief Canadian delegate.

Such endorsements came soon after the Framework Convention Alliance, a coalition of more than 60 anti-tobacco groups from over 20 countries, appealed to government negotiators in Geneva to permit “full NGO participation”.

But not all governments backed the idea. China, for one, objected to NGO involvement in the drafting process going beyond the limits spelled out by the WHO.

The week-long initial round of negotiations, which was attended by government delegates from over 150 countries, has already given rise to a few divisive issues regards tobacco control.

The call for a total ban on advertising tobacco products was among them. While countries like Thailand, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Trinidad and Tobago made a pitch for such a ban, those like Brazil argued for restrictions on tobacco advertising.

Nevertheless, admitted Celso Amorim, the Brazilian representative chosen to chair the intergovernmental negotiating body, delegates from across the regions had displayed a “strong commitment” to carving out an effective global anti-smoking treaty.

Through the FCTC, the WHO is seeking to establish an international legal instrument that “will circumscribe the global spread of tobacco products”. In addition to the bans on advertising and promotion of tobacco products, the WHO document has also called for tough measures against cigarette smuggling, smoking in public places and preventing young people from starting to smoke.

Furthermore, it also advocates the need to increase taxes on tobacco products, reduce subsidies and encourage agricultural diversification of tobacco plantations.

“I hope that member states (of the WHO) will focus on these interventions as they deliberate about the measures to be included both in the FCTC and in their national laws and policies,” said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the WHO, shortly before the first round of negotiations got underway.

The WHO’s drive for the FCTC comes in the wake of what this United Nations agency describes as a glaring reality about tobacco it has evolved into a “global killer”. In reports released this year, the Geneva-based health body expressed concern about the rate at which tobacco-related illnesses and deaths are ravaging many developing countries.

Currently, it reveals, tobacco kills 4 million people annually, a figure that is expected to rise to 10 million deaths by 2030. Furthermore, it points out, by 2030, close to 70 percent of all deaths from tobacco will occur in the developing world, up from 50 percent today.

In this century, it adds, about 1 billion people will die from smoking if it continues to spread unchecked, which will be “10 times the number killed by tobacco through the 20th century”.

Such grim estimates stem from the rate at which tobacco consumption is spreading. According to the WHO, there are 1.1 billion smokers worldwide today, a number that is expected to rise to 1.6 billion by 2025.

And among the regions of particular concern to both the WHO and anti-smoking activists are South and East Asia, which have earned the unhealthy distinction of fast approaching “the highest tobacco consumption” rate in the world.

For Assunta, a “strong FCTC” is the only remedy to stem the manner in which tobacco multinationals are pushing their products into the developing world. “They are definitely worried about the FCTC; that governments are coming together to negotiate (a treaty) that will affect their future business in the developing world,” she says.

Yet, the members of the international anti-smoking movement are cautious in their optimism following the initial round of negotiations for the FCTC. “It is going to be tough to secure a strong and specific treaty, but we are determined to achieve one,” admits Hammond.