The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Tobacco is among the major preventable causes of death in the world today. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that tobacco kills about 6 million people yearly. The tobacco epidemic is devastating but preventable by strong political measures. This was the reason why in 1996 the World Health Assembly requested WHO to initiate the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of WHO in history: the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). In 2005, this Convention entered into force and changed the landscape of public health. Health was no longer the task of national health ministries, but also of the ministries of finance, economy, environment, consumer protection and many others. The WHO FCTC presents a blueprint for governments to reduce both the supply and the demand for tobacco. To support the Parties to the Convention to implement the WHO FCTC, guidelines on several articles have already been developed by the Parties and adopted by the Conference of the Parties, with others to follow. There is no doubt: the WHO FCTC is one of the most widely embraced treaties in the history of the United Nations, with 180 Parties involved (as of 15 January 2015), and many of them are implementing the WHO FCTC consistently. This success demonstrates sustained global political will to strengthen tobacco control and to reduce tobacco consumption.