Geneva - New York: Europe and the Arabs
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the entry into force of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control - one of the most widely accepted UN treaties in history.
The Convention is the first public health treaty negotiated under the auspices of the Organization and has 183 Parties, covering 90% of the world's population. According to the UN daily news bulletin, a copy of which we received this morning, Wednesday, "The treaty provides a legal framework and a comprehensive set of evidence-based tobacco control measures based on international law that have saved millions of lives, including large graphic health warnings on cigarette packs, smoke-free laws, increased taxes on tobacco products, and many other measures.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, said that "tobacco is a scourge that plagues humanity and is the leading cause of death and preventable disease globally."
He pointed out that the prevalence of tobacco use in the world has declined by a third over the past two decades, since the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention and the MPOWER technical package that supports it. He stated that the WHO Convention has contributed to saving millions of lives through strengthening tobacco control measures around the world.
He said that the Convention is a remarkable achievement in the field of public health and international law. He called on countries to continue strengthening their measures and implementation. He also called on countries that have not yet done so to ratify the Convention.