This year’s World No Tobacco Day focuses on youth, with a campaign that will provide a platform for young people across the world to urge governments to stop predatory tobacco marketing tactics. The industry has long targeted youth, hoping to create a new wave of addiction and never-ending profits.
Evidence shows that tobacco companies seek to attract children and youth, including with targeted advertising and promotion. The tobacco industry does this to recruit new tobacco and nicotine users as customers, especially as it needs to replace “customers” who die from tobacco-related diseases.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is the first international treaty negotiated under the auspices of WHO and has 183 Parties, representing over 90% of the world’s population. The WHO FCTC was developed in response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic and is an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health. Within the treaty, the Parties to the WHO FCTC express that they are deeply concerned about the escalation in smoking and other forms of tobacco consumption by children and adolescents worldwide, particularly smoking at increasingly early ages,
The Secretariat of the WHO FCTC is supporting the WHO’s "stop the lies" campaign for World No Tobacco Day this year. This initiative seeks to protect young people from the predatory marketing and promotion of the tobacco industry’s deadly products.
Mr Andrew Black, Team Lead at the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC said: “On World No Tobacco Day, governments are called on to do everything possible to protect current and future generations from the harms of tobacco by implementing the evidence-based measures in the WHO FCTC”.
The WHO FCTC Secretariat seeks to amplify the concerns expressed by young people around the world about the social, environment and economic impacts of tobacco. This year’s World No Tobacco Day will expose the deadly tactics of the tobacco industry, increase public awareness of the need to protect public health from the tobacco industry and promote measures to protect young people from starting to use tobacco in the first place.
During the Tenth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO FCTC (COP10) in Panama in February this year, Dr Adriana Blanco Marquizo, the Head of the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC, met with Global Youth Voices (GYV), a movement representing youth coalitions and organizations from across the globe. At COP10, GYV delivered a statement calling upon Parties to protect future generations from the devastating consequences of the “manipulative practices of tobacco and related industries”.
During COP10, Parties to the WHO FCTC agreed specific guidelines on Article 13 of the WHO FCTC to tackle cross-border tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (including in social media and other digital channels).
The WHO FCTC Secretariat also participated in WHO’s Walk The Talk event on 26 May 2024, and took advantage during the event to raise awareness about the tobacco industry's tactics to target young people.
GIF:
Protect the next generation by opposing harmful tobacco and nicotine products advertising
