Tobacco Treaty to Take Effect in 90 Days
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WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec 1 (OneWorld) – Public-health organizations and activists are hailing the Thursday’s ratification by Peru of the world’s first public-health treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Its ratification means that the treaty will become international law in 90 days.
Peru was the 40th nation to ratify the treaty which has been signed by 168 countries, including the United States. So far, however, the Bush administration has not sent the treaty to the Senate, two-thirds of which must vote in favor of ratification before the treaty is incorporated into U.S. law. “Unfortunately, the United States has a long history of signing treaties and never ratifying them,” said John L. Kirkwood, president of the American Lung Association (ALA), one of a number of public-health groups which urged the administration to submit the treaty to the Senate as one of its top priorities when the new Congress convenes next month. “It is a shame that 40 other nations of the world have been more progressive on this issue than the United States has been,” he added. “The treaty includes important health protections that should apply to everyone everywhere.” Although Washington signed the FCTC last May, the move was met with skepticism from public-health activists who charged that Washington consistently took positions during its negotiation similar to those put forward by the tobacco industry in order to weaken the treaty. Mere signing of treaties with ratification commits countries to support them but does not create any legal obligations to abide by its provisions. Four years in the making, the treaty, which was negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO), provides “nations powerful new tools to protect the health of their citizens from the tobacco industry’s deceptions and slick marketing,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. It requires ratifying nations to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, although the treaty provides an exception for those nations, like the United States, with constitutional constraints. It also requires that large warning labels cover at least 30 percent of cigarette packs and prohibits false, misleading and deceptive language – such as “low tar,” “light,” or “mild” – that imply that a tobacco product is less harmful. In addition, the treaty commits nations to protect nonsmokers from tobacco smoke in indoor workplaces; urges strict regulation of tobacco product contents; and urges governments to increase taxes on tobacco, enhance global efforts to prevent tobacco smuggling, and actively promote tobacco prevention and research programs. It also creates a fund that can be used by poor countries to educate their publics about the hazards posed by tobacco use. While smoking rates have generally fallen in North America and parts of Europe in recent years, they have increased sharply in developing countries as corporate tobacco giants, including British American Tobacco (BAT), Philip Morris/Altria, and Japan Tobacco International, have concentrated their promotion efforts in new markets, particularly in Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Tobacco use is currently killing approximately five million people worldwide every year, according to WHO, but that figure is expected to rise to 10 million a year within two decades, with 70 percent of those deaths in developing nations. “The FCTC is especially important to low-income nations, which multinational tobacco companies have targeted as their most important growth markets,” said John Seffrin, CEO of the American Cancer Society (ACS) who noted that the treaty’s entry into force marks “a tremendous milestone for global public health.” Boston-based Corporate Accountability International (CAI), previously known as INFACT, also called Tuesday for the administration to send the treaty to the Senate for ratification. “This is a tremendous victory for corporate accountability and public health that will undoubtedly save millions of lives,” said Kathryn Mulvey, CAI’s executive director. “This treaty demonstrates that working together, the nations of the world and their NGO (non-governmental organization) allies can limit the influence of giant corporations.” “Attempts by Philip Morris/Altria and the rest of the tobacco industry to prevent an effective treaty from entering into force have proved futile,” she added, noting that the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT), of which CAI is the U.S. affiliate, helped expose earlier this month BAT’s sponsorship of a “beach holiday” for Kenyan lawmakers as part of a lobby campaign to persuade them to oppose the Tobacco Control Bill current pending in parliament. Kenya has ratified the FCTC. “This is a historic moment in the movement challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world,” said Akinbode Oluwafemi of Environmental Rights Action, NATT’s Nigerian affiliate. “Now that this global treaty has become international law, it is no longer business as usual for Big Tobacco.” “With millions of lives at stake, we urge countries that have not yet ratified to do so without delay, particularly those that took the lead during treaty negotiations,” he said. In addition to Peru, the 40 countries that have ratified the FCTC so far include Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Canada, Cook Islands, Fiji, France, Ghana, Hungary, Iceland, India, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Qatar, San Marino, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay. More ratifications are expected before the end of the year. The Cancer Society’s Seffrin said the Senate should have an easy time in deciding how to vote. “Our nation faces some agonizing foreign policy dilemmas, but whether or not to ratify the FCTC is not one of them. This is a case where the global good, our national interest, and public opinion all point toward a single conclusion: we should ratify and fully implement this treaty. Our nation should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of the world on this issue.” He also called for Washington to contribute to effective tobacco control programs in developing countries, calling them “one of the most cost-effective investments in public health that our nation can make.” The WHO estimates that 500 million people alive today, including 250 million children, will ultimately die premature deaths because of tobacco use. In the United States, about 440,000 people die each year from tobacco-related illnesses. |
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