Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the Fctc in core respects embodies brundtland's broader strategy for
countering the crises confronting the wHo. the very ambition of the organisation's
first exercise of its constitutional authority to negotiate an international public health
treaty demarcated the new regime from the sclerotic bureaucracy and cronyism
characteristic of the nakajima era (Yamey 2002a, 2002b, 2002c; Godlee 1994). It
was by no means certain that the wHo would assume the lead role in developing
a tobacco treaty, and indeed the insistence of taylor and roemer that it should be
developed under the aegis of the wHo had previously attracted strong opposition
among WHO officials (Roemer, Taylor, and Lariviere
2005). the assertion of wHo
leadership among Un organisations was to be a key feature of the Fctc process,
with the previous Un focal point for tobacco hosted by UnctaD being replaced
by a UN task force on tobacco control. The significance of this shift was not lost on
the tobacco industry, which launched an urgent call for action from the International
tobacco Growers association (1999) demanding that if 'Mrs. brundtland wants to
have an all-embracing convention on tobacco control' then its preparation should be
returned to 'the United nations' Focal Point to secure the participation of all sectors
and all United Nations Organizations related to the theme'.
the Fctc initiative was central to brundtland's core objective of re-establishing
the status and credibility of the wHo, seeking to reposition the organisation as a
'department of consequence' (Kickbusch 2000). Such a restoration of the wHo's
significance depended on a broader demonstration of the political salience of global
health, and brundtland aimed to move health issues beyond the typically isolated
and low-ranking health ministries: 'I needed to move the global health agenda much
more closely to the development debate, on to the tables of prime ministers and
development and finance ministers, not just health ministers' (bruntland, quoted in
Yamey 2002c).
the sheer breadth of policy issues considered during the Fctc negotiations
required that member states adopt a multi-sectoral perspective, given their
implications for ministries such as trade, foreign policy, finance, taxation, customs, and
development, in addition to health. the wHo's advocacy for the proposed convention
was also marked by attempts to situate tobacco control within broader policy agendas
including gender, human rights, and development. a four-day conference on tobacco
and women in Japan in 1999 culminated in the Kobe declaration, which asserted
that 'gender equality in society must be an integral part of tobacco control strategies'
(wHo 1999b); collaboration with United nations International children's Fund
(UnIceF) resulted in the publication of a report entitled
Tobacco and the Rights
of the Child
(wHo 2001); while success in securing the support of the world bank
(discussed below) was of critical importance to the process.
Developing a visible response to the health risks associated with globalisation
was central to the broader effort to demonstrate the ongoing significance and
relevance of the wHo, and again the Fctc provided an opportunity for such a
demonstration. From the outset the process was explicitly framed as a necessary
response to the impacts of global political and economic change on the epidemic
of tobacco consumption. brundtland's rationale for the convention highlighted
