WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION INTERGOVERNMENTAL NEGOTIATING BODY ON THE WHO FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON TOBACCO CONTROL First session A/FCTC/INB1/DIV/3 16 October 2000
Framework convention on tobacco control First meeting of Intergovernmental Negotiating Body Opening statement by the Director-General Geneva, 16 October 2000
Distinguished delegates, colleagues, A warm welcome to all of you in the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body who are gathered in Geneva to begin the drafting of the international framework convention on tobacco control. I am very pleased that, although I am on the other side of the globe for the opening of the Paralympics, I am able to follow the opening of this week’s proceedings. The work you are beginning today is of immense importance. When I became Director-General of WHO, in 1998, estimates indicated that four million people were dying each year as a result of tobacco use. Forward projections suggested a major epidemic with 10 million deaths a year in 2030, most of them in developing countries. This is more than the combined deaths from malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS and several major maternal and childhood conditions. That is why I declared global tobacco control as a priority. Data provided by WHO’s Member States confirm the dramatic picture. Tobacco causes onefifth of all deaths due to cardiovascular diseases. In 1999, cardiovascular diseases accounted for about one in 10 deaths in Africa; three in 10 deaths in South-East Asia; 33% of all deaths in the Americas, as well as in WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific regions; and 50% of all deaths in the European Region. Tobacco causes one in three cancer deaths worldwide. Cancer accounts for one in 20 deaths in Africa; one in 14 deaths in South-East Asia and in the Eastern Mediterranean Region; and one in five deaths in the Americas, Europe and the Western Pacific. The future looks bleak. The continued marketing of tobacco products to the youth of today means millions of deaths in 30 to 40 years’ time. Surveys in developing and transition countries show that about 20% of schoolchildren aged 13 to 15 are already current users of tobacco products. One in four of these young people started the habit before the age of 10. More than two-thirds of them would like to quit.
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WHO has made the scientific evidence available to all. Tobacco kills. Well over a billion people are addicted to tobacco: most started when very young. They are encouraged to start – and to keep going – through the skilful marketing of tobacco products. The majority would like to quit but find it very difficult to do so. Governments could do much more to discourage smoking and to help kicking the habit. Tobacco-related deaths are preventable. The actions necessary to prevent them are known and cost effective. They require minimal investments. But government action is necessary, and intergovernmental agreement is the key to progress. Countries who have put in place these measures have been able to reduce the number of tobacco users. But over the past 15 years, we have seen that modern technology has limited the effectiveness of national action. Tobacco advertising is beamed into every country via satellite and cable. Developing countries are the subject of massive marketing campaigns by international tobacco companies. In the slipstream of increasing global trade, new markets are opened to international tobacco companies which see these emerging markets as their main opportunity to compensate for stagnant or dwindling markets in many industrialized countries. When challenged, tobacco companies choose to divert attention from the dramatic public health consequences of tobacco use. They talk of the “right to smoke” and of benefits to economies. They have denied the dangers of their products. They have systematically discredited individuals, institutions and processes that genuinely seek to improve people’s well-being through the control of tobacco. We know that they have tried to undermine the World Health Organization and the office of the Director-General. In the public hearings that took place here in Geneva last week, some tobacco companies proposed joint work with the public health community. However, at the same time, they oppose the interventions that we know to have a measurable and sustained impact on tobacco. So, I urge cautious responses to overtures from tobacco companies. Ask them: are they offering to work on measures that really will have an impact on people’s well-being? If so, they would seek less tobacco use and thereby fewer tobacco deaths. This would mean fewer smokers, and lower profits. Thus far, companies are offering to work on measures that have only a limited impact on youth and adult consumption. Let us remember – tobacco remains the only legal consumer product that kills half of its regular users. We need a global response to what is an emerging global health threat. Our challenge is to turn bold words for health into a useful legal instrument so that countries can support each other in their efforts to regulate tobacco, and save the lives of their people. In resolutions unanimously adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 1998 and 1999, Member States gave themselves the political mandate to negotiate a framework convention on tobacco control – or FCTC. Two intergovernmental bodies were established – as subsidiary bodies of the Assembly. One was a working group on the framework convention. The other was this Intergovernmental Negotiating Body. At its two previous meetings, the FCTC working group laid the technical foundation for the work of the Negotiating Body. WHO, the World Bank and public health experts have identified the 2
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interventions that can have a measurable and sustained impact on tobacco use. These are a combination of • increased excise taxes, • bans on tobacco advertising, sponsorship and marketing, • controls on smoking in public places, • expanded access to effective means of quitting, • tough counter-advertising, and • tight controls on smuggling. The working group established the dimensions of the tobacco epidemic. It confirmed the actions that need to be taken. Now is the time for Member States to focus on these interventions as they deliberate on what should be included – both in the framework convention and in their national laws and policies. Colleagues, I appreciate the hard work within national governments to secure agreed positions between health, trade and agriculture, national finance and judicial interests. I recognize that the work of the Negotiating Body will not be straightforward, and that there will be big demands on the expertise and patience of delegates. The WHO Secretariat is on hand to help all delegates – particularly those within the bureau – as they take forward their important tasks. The next few days are vitally important for World Health. Member States have the opportunity to change the course of history. I hope that delegations will reach agreement on wording for a convention that really can make a difference. The reality is that tobacco kills one person somewhere in the world every eight seconds. Any delay will be reflected in more unnecessary deaths – not only now, but for years to come. It is an unprecedented effort, and a noble one. I wish you all the best in your work this week.
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