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Heartline Magazine July - September 2007
Key decisions at COP 2
 Bangkok meeting a
success
By Adrian Randall
I was invited by the Framework Convention
Alliance (FCA) for tobacco control to attend as an “observer”
the second Conference of the Parties (COP 2) to the Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which was held in Bangkok
June 30 - July 6, 2007. The FCA is an international NGO with
offices in Geneva and New York, and the Heart & Stroke
Foundation of Barbados has been a member for about three years.
The FCA sponsored and funded my trip, covering all expenses,
including return airfare to Bangkok, hotel accommodations and
per diem.
This year the numbers from the Caribbean
increased significantly, with five delegates representing
Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago. Last
year there were three. The number of Caribbean NGO “observers”
doubled to two, representing Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago.
Last year I was the sole NGO member from the Caribbean. So our
representation is certainly growing.
Of the 148 countries that had ratified in
time to attend COP 2 some 129 had chosen to send delegates, and,
additionally, those who had not ratified were able to send
observers. This latter list included the USA and Russia. There
was something like 550 attendees at the conference, of which
about 150 were from NGOs, mainly members of FCA.
In order to move the conference along
speedily the President split the plenary up into two, Committee
A and Committee B.
Committee A was charged with discussing,
debating and bringing forward resolutions on:
1. Progress on the elaboration of guidelines
for implementation of Article 8:
Protection from exposure to tobacco smoke, and Article 9:
Product regulation.
2. Elaboration of templates for protocols, particularly in
relation to cross-border
tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (Article 13) and
illicit trade
in tobacco products (Article 15).
3. Establishment of a study group on alternative crops.
4. Elaboration of guidelines for implementation of Article 11:
Packaging and
labelling of tobacco products, Article 12: Education,
communication, training
and public awareness and Article 13: Regulating cross-border
advertising.
Committee B was to look at and resolve:
1. Reporting and exchange of information.
2. Financial resources and mechanisms of assistance.
3. Adoption of the budget for the second financial period of
two years, 2008 and 2009.
4. Date and venue of COP 3.
The Barbados delegate, Mrs. Denise Carter
Taylor, of the Ministry of Health, and I decided that to ensure
that Barbados covered all topics she would attend Committee A
whilst I would go to sessions of Committee B.
Following a week of intensive discussions,
COP 2 finally adopted:
From Committee A:
1. Guidelines on protection from exposure
to tobacco smoke - Article 8 - the first guidelines adopted by
the COP.
2. Setting up of a working group to prepare guidelines on
tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship - Article 13 -
key facilitators to be EC, Finland and India, with 15
partners, to be circulated at least sixty days before the
third session of the COP.
3. Establishment of an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB)
open to all Parties to draft and negotiate a protocol on
illicit trade in tobacco products - Article 15.
4. Mandated the study group on economically sustainable
alternatives to tobacco growing, set up at the first session
of the COP, to continue its work and submit a report to the
third session of the COP - Articles 17 & 18.
5. Established a working group to elaborate guidelines for the
implementation of Article 5.3 - protection from vested
interests of the tobacco industry - key facilitators being
Brazil, Ecuador, Netherlands, Palau and Thailand, with 13
partners, including Jamaica.
6. Requested the working group established by the first
session of the COP on Articles 9 and 10 - regulation of the
contents of tobacco products and regulation of tobacco product
disclosures - to continue its work and provide a progress
report to the third session of the COP. Key facilitators are
Canada, EC and Norway, with 17 partners.
7. Established a working group to elaborate guidelines on
packaging and labelling - Article 11 - key facilitators being
Australia, Brazil, Canada and Peru, with 23 partners,
including Jamaica (CARICOM).
8. Established a working group to elaborate guidelines on
education, communication, training and public awareness -
Article 12 - key facilitators are Germany, Palau and Turkey.
Barbados is one of 18 partners involved
9. Requested the Secretariat to elaborate, in consultation
with the parties particularly interested in the issue, a first
report on tobacco dependence and cessation, to be submitted to
the third COP - Article 14.
Committee B mandated the secretariat, with
technical support from WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI), and
under the guidance of the Bureau, to revise the provisional
format of the reporting document agreed at the first session of
the COP in light of problems so far noted.
1. As regards financial resources and
mechanisms to ask the Secretariat to seek extra-budgetary
contributions from the Parties and others to help those
parties needing assistance in carrying out needs assessments
and developing project and programme proposals for financial
assistance.
2. Adopted a budget of US $8m for 2008- 2009.
3. Adopted the workplan for the financial period 2008 - 2009,
taking account of the decisions reached in Committee A.
4. Adopted the budget for the INB on the protocol on illicit
trade, funded by item 3 above, savings from the 2006-2007
budget, and extra-budgetary contributions, but with a
shortfall of US $2.2m.
5. Adopted the table setting out the distribution of voluntary
assessed contributions for the financial period 2008-2009.
Barbados is set at US $1,020.
The WHO is organised on a regional basis of
six regions: Africa, Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, Europe,
South-East Asia and Western Pacific. The Caribbean is included
in the Americas Region (AMRO). The region produced a draft
declaration in support of strengthening internal capacity for
the implementation of the FCTC. A small working group, of which
St. Lucia was a member, was charged with producing a final draft
of this document for presentation as a resolution at the next
PAHO Conference in October 2007.
Caribbean delegates and observers met with
the Canadian delegation to discuss matters of common interest in
relation to COP 2. This meeting also explored ways in which
Canada, which is more advanced in implementing the FCTC, might
assist us in the Caribbean. In particular on packaging and
labelling, Canada agreed to supply information to Jamaica, who
is leading in discussions with CARICOM, about their legislation.
The declaration issued following the AMRO
discussions calls on the Ministers of Health of the AMRO region
to:
1. Grant the greatest priority to support
the FCTC.
2. Create focal points.
3. Include in the pertinent regional agenda the commitment
from the Ministries of Health with the Ibero-American Network
for tobacco Control.
4. Request that PAHO initiate a specific programme to
strengthen the compliance and enforcement of the FCTC in the
countries that have ratified the Convention.
5. Request PAHO to create a permanent unit, with allocated,
defined resources, with the goal of establishing technical
support, facilitate and monitor, and
otherwise support the compliance with the commitments of the
FCTC.
6. Create national multi-sectoral committees.
The declaration will serve as the basis of a
resolution to be presented at the next PAHO Conference in
October 2007.
Throughout the week of COP 2 there was a
wide array of special lunchtime fringe meetings and evening
meetings covering a number of specific topics mostly directly
related to the implementation of the FCTC articles. These
meetings also served as an opportunity for FCA to get across its
views on a wide range of topics.
For the first time at a COP or INB, NGOs had
the opportunity to put across their views to delegates. This was
at a Forum that was held on the Saturday June 30 at lunchtime
before the first plenary took place.
Topics covered included:
• Civil society as partners in the FCTC
process.
• Best practice smokefree policies.
• Illicit trade in tobacco products.
• Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
• Best practice package warnings and labelling.
• The role of civil society in shadow reporting: Launch of the
first FCA FCTC Monitor.
• New global tobacco control funding.
• COP 2: Opportunities to move the FCTC forward.
A Tax Workshop was very useful, especially
given that I am charged by the Chairman of the NCNCD Commission
with leading a team in the production of proposals re tobacco
tax in Barbados.
A lunchtime briefing on smokefree places was
also helpful given the apparent “stagnation” of the bill in
Barbados to ban smoking in public places.
It was also interesting to learn how the
tobacco industry was reacting to the FCTC. This was probably of
little direct impact on Barbados, as we have no tobacco
industry. However, it can be said that sellers of cigarettes and
other tobacco products in Barbados have a “vested interest” in
the tobacco industry.
I managed to get involved in all of the activities of the FCA to
a greater or lesser degree. The FCA Bulletin was somewhat
surprisingly anxiously awaited by many of the delegates probably
because they wanted to find out if they had been awarded the
“Orchid” or the “Dirty Ashtray”.
So, a few potted highlights from the
publication during the six working days of COP 2:
• The “Death Clock” was launched showing
that 33,050,693 persons have died
from tobacco related diseases since work began on the FCTC in
October 1999.
• England falls in line as the United
Kingdom goes smokefree.
• Dirty ashtray to Paraguay for turning a
blind eye to the flow of illicit tobacco products from its
territory into neighbouring countries, in spite of the
obligations it has accepted under Article 15.
• Tobacco farmers play key role in getting
Tanzania to ratify the FCTC.
• Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados
amongst those calling for introduction of picture-based
warnings on cigarette packages in the Caribbean.
• 8 countries, 21 US states, 10 Canadian
provinces, 7 Australian states/territories have legislation
requiring enclosed restaurants and bars to be 100% smoke-free.
• Orchid awarded to Australia for
announcing the first extra-budgetary funding contribution to
the FCTC.
I again found the conference to be the
success that I fully expected it to be. I was able to gain
important know-how from those countries that are ahead of
Barbados in implementation. Very many useful contacts were made
from around the globe and lots of lessons learnt.
Probably the most successful objective
achieved was that faces were put to names, and even more new NGO
contacts added. The wealth and depth of experience within FCA is
enormous.
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