OneWorld.net (U.S.)

OneWorld.net note: An alliance of anti-tobacco organizations is leading rallies in 25 countries this week to protest tobacco giants' interference with the global tobacco treaty ahead of an upcoming enforcement meeting on the accord.

• "Butt out of the FCTC." An activist protests the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). © Corporate Accountability International"...[T]obacco is the only legally available consumer product which kills people when it is used entirely as intended," according to the Oxford Medical Companion. It is the greatest preventable cause of death and disease in the world, claiming over five million lives every year, adds Corporate Accountability International, a corporate abuse watchdog.

• The main forces driving the global consumption of tobacco are Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, and Japan Tobacco. The combined revenue of these transnational corporations exceeds the combined GDP of El Salvador, Georgia, Ghana, Honduras, Jordan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Uganda, Each company is also known for marketing their products to children and using "their political influence to weaken, delay and defeat tobacco control legislation around the world," states Corporate Accountability.
  

Global Protests Demand Big Tobacco Stop Interfering With Treaty

From: Corporate Accountability International

September 17, 2008

BOSTON- Next week, Corporate Accountability International and its allies are launching a series of actions in 25 countries demanding tobacco transnationals stop interfering in the implementation of the global tobacco treaty (formally known as the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control).

The 9th Annual International Week of Resistance to Tobacco Transnationals is a precursor to the third enforcement meeting on the treaty this November in Durban, South Africa. Countries will be considering specific guidelines on how to implement Article 5.3, including recommendations to:
• keep the tobacco industry out of tobacco control bodies such as treaty delegations;
• prohibit government partnership or collaboration with the tobacco industry; and
• require the tobacco industry to be transparent about its activities and operations.

Action organizers are alerting governments to expected efforts by Big Tobacco to block or water down such provisions.

"The tobacco industry poses the single greatest threat to people getting the health protections they need under the treaty," says Kathy Mulvey, international policy director for Corporate Accountability International. "It is plain nonsensical-and contrary to the treaty itself-to allow these corporations that are damaging our health to sit at the table when our health policies are developed."

At next week's events around the world, Corporate Accountability International and the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) will be releasing a report called Protecting Against Tobacco Industry Interference: The 2008 Global Tobacco Treaty Action Guide. The report provides a snapshot of tobacco industry interference in a range of countries from Nigeria to Mexico and provides activists and policy makers with tools and tactics to counter industry interference.

The following is a short list of in-country actions:

• In Sri Lanka, to illustrate the close ties between Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco) and many government sectors, the Swarna Hansa Foundation will be holding a press conference at Buddhist Ladies College, which is just meters from a shop refurbished by CTC, the national hospital, the capitol city town hall and the main tobacco dealer.
• The Zambia Consumers Association (ZACA) is planning a training workshop for Provincial Health Inspectors to improve implementation of a new smoking ban and to highlight BAT attempts to weaken the ban.
• In Costa Rica, which just ratified the FCTC on August 21, the National Anti-Tobacco Network is planning a delivery of the Action Guide to government officials.

"Corporations like Philip Morris International have a fundamental conflict of interest with public health," says Akinbode Oluwafemi of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth-Nigeria. "While millions of people are getting sick and dying from their deadly products, these giant corporations are pulling out all the stops to undermine effective policies."

The global tobacco treaty has now been ratified by 160 countries, protecting nearly 85 percent of the world's people. Tobacco kills 5.4 million people around the world each year. The death toll is projected to rise to eight million a year by 2030, with 80 percent of those deaths occurring in developing countries. The WHO estimates that broad implementation of the treaty could save 200 million lives by 2050.

For a full schedule, news and photos of the International Week of Resistance to Tobacco Transnationals, or to download the 3rd edition of the Global Tobacco Treaty Action Guide, available in English, French and Spanish, visit: www.StopCorporateAbuse.org.

To read more about the activism to uphold the global tobacco treaty, visit Corporate Accountability International.