Contact:
Newsfox Desk
Phone: + 43 - 1 - 811 40 - 319
E-Mail: editor@newsfox.com
| Pressbox | 
|
Geneva (pte028/21.05.2003/14:47) - The 192 member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) htp://www.who.int have introduced the world's first Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). After four year's of negotiations, the pact for a global fight against smoking was unanimously adopted by the WHO's 56th World Health Assembly. This is the first international treaty to be negotiated under the auspices of the WHO.
The Tobacco Control Convention, which is considered a historic international legal framework for health issues, calls upon all states to limit tobacco advertising, discourage tobacco consumption and limit sponsorship from the tobacco industry. Stricter laws should also lead to more effective measures against the smuggling of tobacco, as stated in a WHO press release.
"Today, we are acting to save billions of lives and protect people's health for generations to come. This is a historic moment in global public health, demonstrating the international will to tackle a threat to health head on," said Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the WHO to the World Health Assembly.
The Convention will become valid as soon as it is signed by 40 states. The members of the WHO agreed on the text at the end of last February, but the United States had expressed some reservations. In the course of discussions, Japan and Germany also expressed dissatisfaction with broad restrictions in tobacco advertising.
The aim of the convention is to reduce the current number of tobacco-related deaths - by last estimate, 5 million people a year. The WHO has warned that the death rate could increase to 10 million a year by 2010 if countries do not implement the new measures. While the number of tobacco-related deaths has decreased in some industrial countries, it is has greatly increased among young people in developing countries, a demographic segment which is expected to account for 70 per cent of the projected death rate.
The FCTC will be open for signature at WHO headquarters from 16 to 22 June 2003 and thereafter at the UN headquarters (New York) from 30 June 2003 to 29 June 2004.
(end)
|
|
