Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
consumption (taylor et al. 2000; chaloupka and laixuthai 1996) and widespread
support among member states. while the vast majority of developing countries and
civil society organisations supported the inclusion of language that would protect
the FCTC from challenge within the WTO, such a position received no significant
support among high-income countries and was never advocated within the tFI. the
Fctc text therefore exhibits a striking contrast between the prominence accorded to
the health impacts of trade liberalisation and foreign direct investment (FDI) in its
justification and the absence of any provisions to address such processes.
Trojan Horse
In this context a trojan horse relationship describes public health appealing to
traditional foreign policy concerns in order to establish its political salience, from
which position a health agenda can then be promoted. while such an interpretation
of the Fctc has not been advanced by public health advocates, it is consistent with
accounts that question the legitimacy of the convention and of the wHo's role
in its development. Perhaps predictably such arguments have been advanced by
tobacco companies (broughton 2000; assunta and chapman 2006) and by related
organisations and individuals. the support of the world bank drew particular
antipathy from liberal commentators, with Curbing the Epidemic dismissed as 'not
a decent economic study, but a document for crusaders' (tren and High 2000). In a
similar vein, the right wing british philosopher roger Scruton (2001) lengthily
attacked what he identified as the wHo's abandonment of its mandate in favour of
'proposing a world-wide socialist programme, and using the concept of a human
right to imply that there is a moral and political duty to impose it'. the credibility of
Scruton's account was arguably somewhat undermined by the subsequent disclosure
that it formed part of a lucrative consultancy for Japan Tobacco (Kmietowicz and
Ferriman 2002).
A more significant critique is provided by Gregory F. Jacob (2004), an expert
in constitutional law in the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel,
in the most severe analysis of the Fctc process delivered by a key participant in
the negotiations. His role in the U.S. delegation was to ensure that the treaty that
emerged should be consistent with constitutional requirements. although professing
sympathy with Fctc objectives, Jacob was vehement in his criticism of the
negotiation process, aspects of the final treaty, and the conduct some participants
(notably civil society organisations). He summarised his position by saying that 'the
FCTC is an imperfect document produced by a deeply flawed process', a process he
regarded as 'broken, inefficient, and generally inimical to United States interests'.
The U.S. approach to the negotiations was presented as a reflection of the greater
weight it accords to obligations in international law, in contrast with an alleged
indifference among other delegations to implications for implementation. Jacob
was critical of the WHO's management of the negotiations, identified its regional
structure as encouraging a split between developed and developing countries, and
regarded the language dealing with advertising and sponsorship as so broad as to
 
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search