The WHO Tobacco Convention: A New Dawn in the Implementation of International Health Instrument?; Comment on “The Legal Strength of International Health Instruments - What It Brings to Global Health Governance?” (original) (raw)
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The article analyzes some dilemmas related to the implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, underscoring the States parties' difficulties in adopting public policies with proven cost-benefit and aimed at reducing tobacco's supply and demand. Specifically, the article examines the recommendation to adopt policies for plain cigarette packaging, as provided in the guidelines for implementation of the Convention's Articles 11 and 13. Based on case analysis, we identified political and legal factors that hinder the Convention's implementation, including the regulatory chill produced by legal claims filed by the tobacco industry, which uses investor-State arbitration clauses from bilateral investment agreements. The article concludes that despite the costs imposed on States and the delays in the adoption of such policies , in the medium and long term the rulings handed down by the arbitration courts and the World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body can consolidate the understanding of the legality and effectiveness of policies that adopt the model.
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In this article Lukasz Gruszczynski argues that there are good grounds for considering the Guidelines to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (‘FCTC’) relevant international standards under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (‘TBT Agreement’). The structure of the article is as follows: Part I provides an overview of the relevant sections of the TBT Agreement and its ambiguities with respect to defining an international standard; Part II sets out the aims, purpose and governance structure of the FCTC; In light of the overviews of the TBT Agreement and the FCTC, Part III then considers whether the FCTC and its Guidelines are likely to satisfy criteria developed by relevant World Trade Organization (‘WTO’) jurisprudence regarding what constitutes an international standard under the TBT Agreement; and, finally Part IV draws out the significance of having the FCTC/Guidelines recognised as an international standard under the TBT Agreement.
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The World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, enforced in 2005, was a watershed international treaty that stipulated requirements for signatories to govern the production, sale, distribution, advertisement, and taxation of tobacco to reduce its impact on health. This paper describes the timelines, context, key actors, and strategies in the development and implementation of the treaty and describes how six sub-Saharan countries responded to its call for action on tobacco control. A multi-country policy review using case study design was conducted in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa, and Togo. All documents related to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and individual country implementation of tobacco policies were reviewed, and key informant interviews related to the countries' development and implementation of tobacco policies were conducted. Multiple stakeholders, including academics and activists, led a concerted effort ...
The processes of the globalization, facilitated by the ever-growing interdependence on economic, political and social spheres on a global level, changed almost every aspect of the world we live in. This processes of interdependence, influenced mainly by the liberalist approach, led to the idea of Global Governance. Simply put, the Global Governance is a way of engaging in the resolution of many trans-state matters, which affect all of us and cannot be resolved individually. One of these transnational matters that cannot be solved by the countries alone are the global health issues. The necessity for a cooperation on a global level to deal with the challenges of health issues led to the idea of Global Health Governance. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is one of the first cases of Global Health Governance, where both formal and non-formal actors engaged in tackling a common problem presented by the increase of tobacco usage, and therefore increase of the non-communicable diseases. The main goal of this is to determine what is being governed, who governs, and how does governance take place in this case, through three different approaches (Institutionalism, Transnationalism and Cosmpolitanism).
The Indian journal of medical research, 2018
Article 20 of the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) deals with surveillance and research on all tobacco products including smokeless tobacco (SLT). Here we describe the availability of indicators related to SLT among 180 Parties to the convention (countries ratifying the WHO FCTC are referred as Parties to the Convention). Data on SLT use among adults and adolescents and SLT-related economic and health indicators among Parties were obtained through rigorous literature search. Data analysis for high-burden parties was done using SPSS. Nearly 92 per cent (166) of the Parties reported SLT use prevalence among adults or adolescents at national or subnational level, of these nearly one-fifth of the Parties (20.5%) were high-burden Parties. Comparable SLT tax incidence rate was available for 19.4 per cent (n=35) Parties, and SLT attributable morbidity and mortality risks of major diseases were available for only five per cent (n=10) of Parties....
THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW WITHIN NATIONAL LEGISLATION ON TOBACCO CONTROL
The present article, taking into account advances in international rights and the need for domestic implementation of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) standards, has the objective of analyzing the competence to bring domestic and international regulations to fruition, with the purpose of creating coordinated public policies for tobacco control. So, it is possible to argue that the FCTC, by means of its guidelines, laid down at the Conferences of the Parties (COPs) and which are binding to all members states of the convention, paves the way for international regulation. Domestically, such regulation has to observe DOP guidelines, there being leeway for organizations like Brazil’s ANVISA to bring those guidelines into action, such as the one related to FTCT articles 9 and 10, which limit the use of flavour additives in tobacco products, as a way of implementing international standards within the country. There is also no conflict between free enterprise and tobacco control given that, as stated by the Constitutional Court of Colombia in a process involving the constitutionality of restrictions to tobacco advertising, this is a market that should not be stimulated, but rather merely tolerated.