This week marks 20 years since the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control came into force.
You have to have a long memory to recall how extraordinarily ambitious it was dream that countries would agree on an international law on tobacco and to devote your efforts to working on this treaty. And perhaps you have to have been there to fully appreciate the visionary leadership and strategic acumen that was shown by those individuals working within government and non-government systems who made it happen.
The architects and stonemasons of the FCTC have now largely moved on to new challenges, have moved out to retirement or are sadly no longer with us. Those who have replaced them are facing tobacco control challenges which are no less daunting and require no less skill and commitment to overcome. Nor are the stakes any lower.
Just as before, the treaty faces the headwinds of tobacco industry interference and the lack of funding. Added to these familiar challenges is the industry's ability to use new nicotine products to sidestep tobacco control measures and to inveigle themselves into tobacco control discussions.
A commentary published in the Lancet this week reflects on the FCTC at the 20-year mark and offers some advice on how Parties can better meet old and new challenges [Gilmore AB et al. 20th anniversary of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control coming into force: Gilmore AB et al. 20th anniversary of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control coming into force: time for a step change in ambition.
The recommendations in this commentary include:
* Ensuring stable financing by moving towards a polluter pay approach in which the industry pays for the harm it causes
* Accelerating implementation among those countries which are behind and adopting forward looking measures (such as those under review by the Article 2.1 Expert Group) among countries which have met the basic implementation objectives
* Responding to new nicotine/tobacco products and tobacco industry disinformation by accepting there is unlikely to be a single approach that fits all countries, but that the FCTC offers regulations that can be applied to all new products and stronger measures are also consistent with the treaty.
* Taking steps to prevent industry interference by developing measures to prevent their involvement in COP delegations, by establishing a legal defence fund, by providing the funding to ensure that independent science is available and by better holding the industry accountable for the harms it causes.
* Increasing data sharing and scientific and other exchanges among governments.
The aspirations, enthusiasm, stamina and cooperation that were engaged in building the FCTC are badly needed again.
