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02.10.2014 Diaspora News

Ghana Poised To Press Big Tobacco To Pay For Health Impacts

Moscow Treaty Meeting To Advance Mechanisms For Countries To Sue Tobacco Industry
By Musah Massawudu
Ghana Poised To Press Big Tobacco To Pay For Health Impacts
02.10.2014 LISTEN

MOSCOW- Delegates from Ghana will join as many as 177 other countries to convene for the Sixth Conference of the Parties of the global tobacco treaty to take some of the most powerful steps in tobacco control since its adoption.

A central focus will be on advancing a provision to hold the tobacco industry civilly and criminally liable for its abuses.To make progress on this and other treaty provisions, Parties will first take precedent-setting action tobar Big Tobacco from the proceedings permanently.

The tobacco epidemic costs the global community more than $500 billion every year. These direct health costs are compounded bythe loss of economic activity from ailing or dying smokers and environmental destruction from farming practices.The successful litigation against the tobacco industry in the U.S, via the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), secured the recovery of $206 billion in health care costs and transformed public health by banning advertising to kids and exposing industry lies.

The development of guidelines for the provision in focus, known as Article 19 on liability, could begin in earnest this year in Moscow. The first step in its implementation is giving teeth to the measure's groundbreaking vision by building upon examples of successful tobacco industry litigation from around the globe.

The directive will especially help low and middle-income countries, where 80% of the world's smokers now live, but whose GDPs are often dwarfed by Big Tobacco's revenues—making going head-to-head with the industry in the courts a dubious prospect.

The Vision for Alternative Development (VALD) held a training for some Ghanaian Journalists ahead of this year 's COP6 with the hope of raising the visibility of the issues to be discussed at the COP6 including article 19. VALD is urging Ghanaian delegates to support the call to establish a working group, which will include the same expert group that previously worked on the article 19.

The global tobacco treaty, known formally as the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) came into force in 2005. To date, 178 countries and the European Union are Party to the treaty. It containsthe world's most effective tobacco control and corporate accountability measures— estimated to save more than 200 million lives by 2050 if fully implemented.

“Progress in Moscow will be a watershed moment for the global community just as the MSA was in the U.S.,” said Challenge Big Tobacco Campaign Director, John Stewart, “These provisions will relegate this poisonous industry further into exile where it belongs.”

Many countries in addition to the United States, like Canada,South Korea and even NGOs have initiated legal campaigns against Big Tobacco. In the US, the 1998 lawsuit between 46 State Attorneys General and the tobacco industry forced the release of millions of internal documents proving the industry lied about the health effects of its products for more than two decades and targeted kids with its marketing.

To engender progress on Article 19 and other treaty provisions, Parties will first take-up a call to permanently bar Big Tobacco from participating in treaty meetings. The policy stems from a broader treaty directive called Article 5.3, that prevents industry interference in the halls of government —a primary avenue of its interference.

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