Excellencies, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen
Greetings from the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. My name is Andrew Black, and I am acting Head of Secretariat.
From the outset, I wish to commend the Ministers of Health of the Eastern Mediterranean Region for your continued leadership and commitment to advancing tobacco control.
The evidence relating to the harms from tobacco use is well established and understood. Tobacco use is one of the leading risk factors for non-communicable diseases. It is a risk for certain communicable diseases as well, including tuberculosis.
What is less well recognized is the profound impact that tobacco has on sustainable development. Tobacco causes poverty, harms the environment and damages our economies.
And I know that you will be just as concerned as I am about how popular tobacco and nicotine products are to young people. These products are often designed to appeal to young people. We must protect children from addiction.
Excellencies, this is all avoidable, if only people did not use tobacco.
The Eastern Mediterranean Region continues to demonstrate that political will and collaboration, especially at ministerial level, can deliver measurable results and inspire progress at country, regional and global levels.
The Region has made significant achievements that deserve recognition.
Fifteen out of twenty-two countries have implemented comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship — making the Eastern Mediterranean Region one of the highest performing regions globally on this key public health measure.
These achievements have effectively reduced everyone’s exposure to tobacco marketing and reaffirm the Region’s commitment to protect public health from industry tactics. Importantly, the industry’s ability to promote tobacco to young people has been stopped.
Nevertheless, progress is being challenged as new tobacco and nicotine products are being introduced into markets. The law needs to keep pace with these new products.
Several countries have adopted large, graphic health warnings that meet or exceed the requirements of the WHO FCTC, and this is to be applauded.
Graphic health warnings provide clear, evidence-based messages to consumers, increasing health literacy. This communication does not cost governments at all.
Your continued support for maintaining these warnings, introducing new warnings to widen understanding of the risks of tobacco use and considering making the warnings bigger to attract even more attention is appreciated.
I also commend the progress being made towards the introduction of plain packaging in the region, with three countries moving to implementation. The tobacco package is known by the tobacco industry as its “silent salesman”.
Through plain packaging, the appeal of tobacco products, especially for young people, is further reduced.
To consolidate the achievements made, continuous surveillance is essential. This is an area where more attention is needed, especially to support your decision-making.
Re-establishing regular adult and youth tobacco use surveys across all countries is critical for tracking the epidemic, identifying policy gaps, and informing national action.
The Secretariat in partnership with WHO stands ready to support countries in the region to ensure that data collection is robust so that this information can contribute to achieving your priorities to strengthen health and well being.
I must also address the menace of tobacco industry interference. A major problem for governments around the world.
It is vital that we all remain vigilant to interference by the tobacco industry and those who work to further its interests. Again and again, governments report this interference as the main barrier to fully implementing the WHO FCTC.
The full implementation of WHO FCTC Article 5.3 remains as critical now as ever, and the implementation guidelines help Parties with the practical action that is needed to ensure transparency, accountability, and protection of policymaking from interference.
At the same time, new challenges continue to emerge. The tobacco industry is bringing novel tobacco products to markets. The industry is wrongly pushing a narrative that these products are without harm, but we know that these products are addictive and attractive to young people. And we must remember that all tobacco products are within the scope of the WHO FCTC.
The leadership of this Ministerial Group is vital to set the tone at national level: that public health, not profit, must drive decision making.
With the WHO FCTC’s Conference of the Parties taking place in November, I kindly ask you to support us to achieve the objectives of the Treaty by fully excluding the tobacco industry from national delegations. I hope that a clear message of leadership can go from this group to all Parties in your region on this critical issue.
In conclusion, Excellencies, please may I encourage you to maintain your national action on tobacco control and to maintain the collective momentum in your region.
In particular, there is an opportunity to show leadership to the rest of the world by making this the first WHO Region to achieve full implementation of bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship that includes all tobacco products, including the new types of tobacco being introduced to markets.
I also urge action in the region to implementing meaningful graphic health warnings, ensure robust surveillance and monitoring, and the full implementation of measures to protect public health from the vested and commercial interests of the tobacco industry.
Through your leadership and example, the Eastern Mediterranean Region can become a beacon for public health and sustainable development through strong tobacco control, with the ultimate objective of ending the tobacco epidemic.
Thank you