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Tobacco industry watchdog, Corporate Accountability
International, and its allies, on Monday, released a report documenting
widespread tobacco industry interference in the implementation of the
global tobacco treaty (formally known as the World Health Organisation
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control).

The report’s release kicks off a string of grassroots
actions in dozens of countries leading up to November’s treaty meeting
in Punta del Este, Uruguay. At stake are nearly 200 million lives – the
number of lives the World Health Organisation projects would be spared
by 2050 if the treaty takes full effect – and the tobacco industry
interference remains the single greatest obstacle to this objective.
During this year’s 10th International Week of Resistance to Tobacco
Transnationals, which began on Monday, the anti-tobacco groups say that
their actions will expose industry obstructionism in countries around
the globe which they hope would build momentum going into the November
meeting.

Showing solidarity

The Week is also an opportunity for the global
community to speak out in solidarity with Uruguay; Philip Morris
International is suing Uruguay for implementing a treaty provision
requiring stronger cigarette pack health warning labels. “Big Tobacco
first tried to bully the global community out of advancing this treaty.
Now it’s attempting to bully countries out of enforcing it,” said Gigi
Kellett, the Director of Corporate Accountability International’s
campaign Challenging Big Tobacco. “Still, our findings indicate that the
industry’s resolve to defy the law is matched only by civil society’s
resolve to end industry intimidation,” he said.

The report cited some of the tactics used by the
tobacco industry to undermine treaty implementation to include the
donation of $200 million to the Columbian government by Philip Morris
International following the adoption of treaty implementation
legislation to “address areas of mutual interest;” the appointment of a
former British American Tobacco executive, Kenneth Clarke, as Justice
Minister – he would oversee a recent lawsuit by BAT and its competitors
against a new law cracking down on tobacco product displays; and
engaging in a string of lawsuits regarding tobacco product displays,
packaging, and health warning labels from Australia and the Philippines
to Norway. All of these tactics, the groups say, are in direct defiance
of the treaty, specifically its Article 5.3, which deems such industry
interference to be in fundamental conflict with the treaty’s public
health aims.

Slow progress

The report also finds that Article 5.3 is being used
to great effect globally to insulate the treaty’s implementation against
the tobacco industry. Action ranges from Mauritius becoming the first
country to ban all tobacco industry “corporate social responsibility”
schemes to Panama’s prohibiting government agencies and officials from
accepting tobacco industry contributions. “Those countries, large and
small, that refuse to be intimidated, are emboldening others to follow
their lead,” said Philip Jakpor, spokesperson for Environmental Rights
Action in Nigeria and the Network for Accountability of Tobacco
Transnationals (NATT).

“The success of the November treaty meeting will be
measured by the number of Parties that return to their countries with a
plan to root out industry interference. Millions of lives are on the
line,” Mr Jakpor said. In Nigeria, the Senate Committee on Health held a
Public Hearing on the Tobacco Control Bill in July last year and the
bill is still awaiting passage into law at senate’s plenary. Each year,
tobacco kills more than five million people and 80 percent of those
deaths are in low-income countries, where treaty implementation
represents some of the first efforts at tobacco control.

One hundred and seventy-one countries have ratified the global
tobacco treaty since its entry into force in 2005. Today, the treaty
protects more than 87 percent of the world’s population.