WHO FCTC leaders request banning delegates with ties to tobacco industry
Leaders of the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)is keeping out delegates linked to state-owned tobacco firms from the upcoming seventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) to shut out tobacco industry influence from policy-making.
Members of the 180 delegations who are “working to advance the interests of the tobacco industry” or delegates employed by state-owned tobacco companies, “would be requested to leave the premises” of the conference that will be held on November 7 to 12 near New Delhi in India.
This is according to a “note verbale”, an official diplomatic communication, from the WHO FCTC secretariat on behalf of the treaty’s leadership group to its parties.
If adopted at the upcoming COP7, the proposal could restrict delegations sent by countries like China and Vietnam, where governments own cigarette companies and have in the past sent representatives linked to the industry.
China’s 18-person delegation at the last WHO FCTC conference in Moscow in 2014 had four members from the “State Tobacco Monopoly Administration”. Two of eight Vietnamese delegates at the 2012 conference in Seoul, South Korea were from the “Vietnam Tobacco Association”.
The proposed restriction highlights a growing battle between the industry and supporters of the treaty, which went into effect in 2005 to guide national laws and policies in an effort to curb tobacco use, which kills an estimated 6 million people a year worldwide.
The global tobacco industry is estimated to be worth nearly US$800 billion this year.
The proposal was met by both positive and negative comments from the two sides.
Portuguese tobacco grower António Abrunhosa, the chief executive of the International Tobacco Growers Association, a non-profit group partly funded by big international cigarette companies, reportedly said that the step was “unthinkable for a United Nations agency”.
John Stewart, deputy campaigns director at Corporate Accountability International, an advocacy group based in Boston, Massachusetts in the US that has supported tobacco-control efforts, praised the proposed restrictions.
In an interview, Stewart said that the tobacco industry has forced the parties and the secretariat into a corner. He also added that the action will ensure that the treaty space, “the place where public health policies will save millions of lives”, will not be influenced by tobacco industry intimidation.
Issues for debate at the conference include alternative livelihoods for tobacco farmers, e-cigarette regulation and trade and investment issues.
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