A curated list of articles which focus on FCTC COP.
#COP9 #THRworks
1. The Counterfactual, Clive Bates: Letters sent by experts to WHO and articles about WHO and tobacco harm reduction, from 2014 to now. A must read for anyone wanting a clear headed look at the issues.
https://clivebates.com/category/who/
“WHO should be building public trust, not giving its critics further justification”
2. A 2021 report by the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for Vaping Inquiry (COP9)
Inquiry into the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Conference of the Parties
https://copinquiry.co.uk/report-and-press-release
“Against a backdrop of the WHO suggesting that vaping should be banned, the Parliamentarians sought to assess how our progressive and successful approach to tobacco harm reduction and reduced risk products at home, fits in with the WHO’s prohibitionist stance at a time when the UK is one of the WHO’s largest state donors“
3. October 2021 Briefing paper from the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction
The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Conference of the Parties (COP): an explainer
“FCA accreditation is only open to those with no connections to the tobacco industry, however tangential or historical. Also excluded are advocacy NGOs representing people directly affected by tobacco control regimes. This includes smokers and users of safer nicotine products. The involvement of the tobacco industry in the production of some but by no means all safer nicotine products means that advocacy organisations in favour of tobacco harm reduction, including numerous vaping or snus consumer advocacy organisations, are excluded de facto.”
4. Two articles from Gregory F Jacob, who helped to negotiate the FCTC:
(i) Without Reservation, 2004
“My personal view is that the FCTC is an imperfect document produced by a deeply flawed process”
Jacob, Gregory F. (2004) “Without Reservation,” Chicago Journal of International Law: Vol. 5: No. 1, Article 19. Available at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cjil/vol5/iss1/19
(ii) Administering the Mark of Cain: Secrecy and Exclusion in the FCTC Implementation Process
“The process for negotiating and implementing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (“FCTC”), the world’s first public health treaty and the first adopted under the auspices of the World Health Organization (“WHO”), has been characterized by novel features of secrecy and exclusion that cannot be reconciled with accepted norms of international law-making.”
Gregory F. Jacob, Administering the Mark of Cain: Secrecy and Exclusion in the FCTC Implementation Process, 41 Fordham Int’l L.J. 669 (2018). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ilj/vol41/iss3/3
5. In this article Meier and Shelley argue that “ the international human right to health supports a harm-reduction approach to tobacco control”.
“The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), while successful in its execution, fails to acknowledge the harm reduction strategies necessary to help those incapable of breaking their dependence on tobacco”
6. An account of past COPS written by COP observer Jeannie Cameron before COP7 in 2016.
“It will be significant for the COP to determine whether it will be able to put public health ahead of politics and accept that tobacco may not harmful in all its forms—and that harm reduction is a policy that can apply to tobacco as well as other areas of public health.“
7. Report written for the European Commission which reviews the EU’s role in creating and applying the FCTC.
“In addition to the 167 nation states that have become parties to the Framework Convention, the European Union is the only and first-ever regional economic organization that has become a full signatory member and party to the FCTC“