Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
a session. the terms of civil society participation remained contested throughout
the negotiation process, although there were attempts to ease these restrictions.
Following an open consultation held by canada and thailand, member states
approved recommendations to accelerate the accreditation process and to grant
access to open working groups to NGOs in official relations.
In October 2000, the WHO held its first public hearings, enabling participation
to stakeholders and civil society groups across the tobacco industry and allied
groups as well as public health organisations. these clearly provided a limited form
of participation, and were perhaps primarily a sop to tobacco interests bemoaning
their exclusion. but the hearings did allow some 144 organisations to provide oral
testimony, while 500 written submissions were received.
the involvement of civil society organisations in the Fctc process was greatly
enhanced by the formation and development of the Framework convention alliance
(FCA). At the initial working groups, civil society participation was largely confined
to nGos from high-income countries and international health-based nGos.
the Fca increased communication among civil society organisations already
engaged, and systematically reached out to support new and small organisations,
particularly in developing countries. by February 2003 the Fca had established
itself as a significant coalition of more than 180 NGOs from more than 70 countries,
and had established itself as an important lobbying alliance. coordinated via the
FCA, NGOs in official relations were able to exploit their limited access to fulfil
significant lobbying, educational, and monitoring roles. The expertise accumulated
within the Fca became a key resource, particularly in a progressive alliance with the
african and southeast asian regions. additionally, a few prominent advocates were
occasionally included within the official delegations of member states (Collin, Lee,
and bissell
2004).
Civil society's contribution to the final negotiations was, however, significantly
hampered by increasing unease among member states opposed to a powerful text.
The designation of most negotiating sessions of the final Inb as informal provided a
simple mechanism for the exclusion of nGo participants—a reduction of access and
transparency insisted upon by the U.S. and china delegations (wilkenfeld 2005).
Transnational Tobacco Companies and the FCTC
corporate documents disclosed following litigation in the U.S. provide a unique
resource for analysing the role of corporations in international health governance,
enabling research of direct policy relevance in the context of Fctc implementation.
Preliminary analysis of available documents suggests that the responses of tobacco
companies to regulation do not display the uniformity that has traditionally been
presumed by health researchers. while a basic antagonism to stringent regulation
can certainly be identified and cooperation in many areas confidently predicted, the
strategic responses to emergent regulation adopted by tobacco companies diverge
significantly according to their respective market status.
