PHA-Exchange> OFFICIALS FORTIFY A UN GLOBAL TREATY MEANT TO CURB TOBACCO USE AND SAVE LIVES

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern.weitzel at undp.org>
OFFICIALS FORTIFY A UN GLOBAL TREATY MEANT TO CURB TOBACCO USE AND SAVE
LIVES

New York, Feb 22 2006  7:00PM
More than 100 countries agreed this month to a series of concrete steps that
will propel a United
Nations global treaty closer toward its goal of saving lives by curbing
tobacco use among the
world’s 1.3 billion smokers.

Among the measures hammered out during the two-week conference in Geneva
were moves to study
economically viable  alternatives to tobacco growing and production as well
as developing legally
binding instruments to monitor cross-border advertising and illicit trade.
The measures are intended
to further strengthen the World Health Organization
(<"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/en/">WHO)
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control since it entered into force nearly
one year ago.

Conference President Juan Martabit of Chile said all the delegates gathered
at this first meeting of
the Conference of Parties, the Treaty’s governing body, shared the urgency
of the problems of
worldwide tobacco use. “I am confident we are on track to save millions of
lives in the near future,
thanks to this Treaty,” said Mr. Martabit, who is Chile’s Permanent
Representative to the UN Office
at Geneva.

The delegates agreed to establish the permanent secretariat of the Treaty
within WHO headquarters in
Geneva. The delegates settled on a two-year $8 million budget, which would
be funded through
voluntary assessed contributions.

As the second major cause of death in the world, tobacco is now responsible
for about 5 million
deaths annually, according to WHO, which estimates that 84 per cent of the
world’s 1.3 billion
smokers live in developing and transitional economy countries.

The WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative believes the most cost-effective
strategies to curb tobacco
consumption are population-wide public policies, like tobacco advertising
bans, tobacco tax and
price increases, smoke-free environments in all public and workplaces, and
graphic health messages
on tobacco packaging.

All of these measures are required under the Treaty’s provisions, including
some with deadlines. For
example, from the Treaty’s entry into force, countries have three years to
enforce health warnings
on tobacco products and five years to implement comprehensive bans on
tobacco advertising, promotion
and sponsorship.