Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of civil society. tobacco industry efforts to undermine the negotiations are addressed
in an analysis of internal corporate documents released following litigation in the
United States. the Fctc is then discussed as an important context within which
to consider the interaction among policy communities, before concluding with an
assessment of its achievements and prospects.
Toward the FCTC: The WHo and Reform
while the idea for a treaty to combat the rising tobacco epidemic emerged within
the international tobacco control movement, the subsequent development of the
Fctc needs to be explained with reference to the broader politics of health
governance within the wHo in the late 1990s. the origins of the convention are
usually traced back to academic lawyer allyn taylor's interest in the wHo's
unexercised constitutional authority to develop international health law, ideas
subsequently applied to tobacco control at the prompting of ruth roemer in 1993
(Mackay 2003; roemer, taylor, and lariviere 2005). as key advocates sought to
promote the concept within the wHo and the United nations conference on trade
and Development (UnctaD), which at the time was the Un focal point for tobacco
issues, it received important civil society support via a resolution of the ninth
world conference on tobacco or Health in Paris in 1994. the formal start of the
process that led to the Fctc is represented by the wHa resolution passed in May
1995 (wHo 1995). In establishing an international strategy for tobacco control,
it requested a report 'on the feasibility of developing an international instrument
such as guidelines, a declaration, or an international convention on tobacco control
to be adopted by the United nations, taking into account existing trade and other
conventions and treaties'.
the emergence of the Fctc as a viable process backed up by substantial
political commitment was not, however, evident until the 1998 arrival of Gro Harlem
brundtland, a former minister of health and prime minister in norway, as director
general of the wHo. although one recent history of the organisation cites the Fctc
as an example of an initiative credited to brundtland that had actually begun under
her predecessor Hiroshi nakajima (brown, cueto, and Fee
2006), her individual
significance to its development is beyond dispute. Previously the treaty proposal
had met with substantial resistance among WHO officials and had lacked both
political support and policy direction (roemer
,
taylor, and lariviere 2005); now it
was rapidly established as a primary objective under brundtland. tobacco control
was announced as one of two priorities alongside malaria, and the new tobacco Free
Initiative headed by Derek Yach was accorded the status of a cabinet project and
charged with the task of developing a treaty. the tobacco industry was also quick to
acknowledge the significance of Brundtland's leadership, with one document from
1999 noting that her arrival had 'completely changed the pace and more importantly,
the way of conducting the initiative' by emphasising a rapid wHo-led process to be
completed by 2003 (International Tobacco Growers Association [ITGA] 1999).
