|
Mr
Chairman,
Distinguished
Representatives,
It gives me
great pleasure to see you all here today.
The overwhelming support and encouragement that we
have received over the past few months makes me confident that we will
soon be in a position to set in place multilaterally negotiated rules
to bring down tobacco related deaths world-wide. The Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is progressively taking shape
with each passing day.
Let me again stress the high stakes in this
process. This year, more than 2 million of the annual global tobacco
death toll of 4 million will occur in the developing world. By 2030,
the total annual death toll will have reached 10 million, and 7
million of those deaths will take place in the developing countries.
New data also shows that younger and younger people
are taking to smoking – in some countries 10-year-old children are
addicted to tobacco.
Every single obstacle we encounter on our way to
securing a set of strong rules to curb this epidemic must be seen
against that public health reality. Beyond the concern and the
rhetoric, beyond the anger and the anguish, it is our ability to
secure a set of global rules to control tobacco that will bear
testimony to our responsibility and determination. With one life lost
to tobacco every eight seconds, time is not on our side.
That is what we heard from a series of regional
consultations on the FCTC. The Member States of the African Region
took the lead by organizing the first regional meeting on the Chair’s
text in Johannesburg, South Africa. These countries called on the
Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) to ensure that the final
negotiated text prioritizes "public health’’ and devote
particular attention to the needs of the African countries which are
facing a double burden of disease.
These calls were echoed by Member States in their
regional consultation in the South-East Asian Region. Meeting in
Jakarta last month, WHO Member States from the Region stressed the
pivotal public health dimensions of the exercise we are all engaged
in.
In Jamaica, our Member States from the Caribbean
met and committed themselves to intensified action in preparation for
implementation of the FCTC. The delegates affirmed the importance of
Caribbean representation in the negotiations on the FCTC to ensure
that the concerns and particular priorities of the subregion are
reflected.
Our Eastern Mediterranean Region took the lead in
one new area by holding the first WHO International Consultation on
Litigation and Public Inquiries as Public health Tools for Tobacco
Control. That meeting explored means of improving the policy
environment for tobacco control and proposed options to move ahead.
Mr Chairman,
A global community of policy makers, scientists and
advocates calling for responsibility in public health together created
an environment in which WHO could conceive using a global
treaty-making process for the purpose of tobacco control.
Social scientists, economists, public health
experts, women’s’ groups and lawyers have worked with us for the
last three years delivering accurate information to the treaty-making
process, and taken public health science and research into the highest
levels of political decision-making.
In the political world of bills, laws and
regulations, everything is a work-in-progress where informative and
accurate feedback makes the next version better than the last.
The Chair’s text is unanimously recognized as an
excellent start. The negotiations, I have no doubt, will only make it
better. I wish you luck.
Thank you. |
