What next?
180 nations are already party to the global tobacco treaty-- WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) - whose Article 11 requires the implementation of strong pack warnings and the ban of misleading descriptors such as low tar, light, and 'mild'. Also its Article 5.3 recognizes that there is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict of interest between tobacco industry and public health policy and commits governments to firewall health policy from industry capture.
In the post 2015 development agenda, action on WHO FCTC is now among the world's top development priorities. Our governments have already committed to achieve the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) as envisaged in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development that was adopted at the UN Summit in September 2015. One of these (SDG 3.a) is to strengthen the implementation of WHO FCTC in all countries.
While commitments are in place, concrete action is lagging behind. Governments will meet at the forthcoming 7th session of the FCTC Conference of the Parties (COP7) that will take place in India in November, 2016 to discuss progress on WHO FCTC implementation and adopt decisions to guide global tobacco control for the next two years to ensure that the implementation of WHO FCTC is on track for the world to meet the SDG targets by 2030.
Strong tobacco control legislation is an absolute necessity to reverse the global growth of tobacco use, and achieve the health targets prescribed in the SDGs. Fully implementing domestic tobacco control laws and WHO FCTC on the ground is a public health and social justice imperative. To quote the Tobacco Atlas- "We stand at a crossroads of the tobacco epidemic, with the future in our hands. We can choose to stand aside and take weak and ineffective measures, or instead implement robust and enduring measures to protect the health and wealth of nations."
Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service -- CNS
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