Questions and answers on reporting under the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products

Article 32.1 of the Protocol requires all Parties to submit to the Meeting of the Parties (MOP), through the Convention Secretariat, periodic reports on their implementation of the Protocol. The format and content of the reports is determined by the Meeting of the Parties.  

The Convention Secretariat communicates, through notes verbales, the expected dates of submission of Parties’ periodic reports and other practical information on reporting. 

At the first session of the MOP, Parties decided that implementation reports should be submitted in cycles that are synchronized with the cycle of the reports of the WHO FCTC (decision FCTC/MOP1(10)). This is a biennial cycle with reports expected in each MOP year.

Parties that have not submitted their implementation reports during the reporting period identified in the notes verbales sent by the Convention Secretariat – and, if applicable, in any further official communication on the matter from the Secretariat – will not be able to do so after the deadline, only in future reporting cycles. Information from the Parties that have not submitted a report by the deadline will not be included in the analysis that the Secretariat carries out for the next Meeting of the Parties.

However, information about any developments in implementing the Protocol could be sent to the Secretariat at any time, outside the official reporting cycles, through the following email address: mopreporting@who.int.

To access the online reporting platform and complete the questionnaire, Parties should refer to the link sent by e-mail to the focal point(s) designated by the Party before the opening of the new reporting cycle. 

A PDF version of the questionnaire is available for Parties’ information (not completion, just information) under the “Reporting” tab on the Protocol website.

An MS Word version of the questionnaire is also available from the Convention Secretariat upon request. Parties are kindly invited to send their request to receive the MS Word version to mopreporting@who.int.

Please note that neither the PDF nor the Word versions are suitable for submitting the reports. Only reports submitted through the online reporting platform are accepted as official reports.

Yes. Should the Parties need any of their previous reports in PDF, they could access them in the Implementation Database for the Protocol on the Protocol website.

In the 2025 reporting cycle, due to significant changes in the reporting instrument, Parties will need to complete their report from scratch. In later cycles, Parties will be able to retrieve previously reported information in the reporting platform.

Links to the online reporting platform are sent to the Parties using the email address of the Protocol technical focal point found in the records of the Convention Secretariat. If the individual responsible for the completion of the reporting instrument has changed since the last reporting cycle, please contact the Convention Secretariat at mopreporting@who.int, and provide the contact details of the new focal point.  

The report should be submitted in one of the six official languages of the UN: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish. 

Yes. In the reporting platform, there are brief instructions on how to respond to the respective question. In addition, in a separate file, Parties have a user manual available on how to use the reporting platform.

Yes. In such cases, please send a message containing a brief description of the required assistance to mopreporting@who.int, and the Convention Secretariat will strive to assist as quickly as possible. In the reporting period, the Secretariat will deal with such messages on a priority basis. 

The reporting platform automatically saves data that is entered. The completion of the report can be discontinued and resumed at any time.

Parties with limited access to the Internet or if their Internet access is not stable, Parties should notify the Convention Secretariat of the difficulty they are facing. According to our previous experience, there could be some remedies for this problem. In some cases, the WHO Country Office can help the country’s reporting officer by providing a workspace with a good Internet connection for the time necessary to complete the report.

Alternatively, Parties can complete their implementation reports offline in an Excel format that could be downloaded from the platform (or an MS Word version that can be requested from the Secretariat); the Excel file could easily be “imported” to the reporting platform, while the information in an MS Word version should be copied and pasted into the online reporting platform, once the Internet connection is restored.

If a Party submitted its report by mistake (e.g., it is still incomplete and wishes to work more on it), it should send a message to the Convention Secretariat to mopreporting@who.int and request the reopening of the report.  

The report can be downloaded or “exported” from the platform at any time. Alternatively, the Party can also request a PDF copy of the report after submission from the Convention Secretariat; please send your request to mopreporting@who.int.

The designated government official responsible for submitting the implementation report can sign a cover letter, but this is not mandatory.

If a cover letter is being prepared, this could be scanned and emailed to the Convention Secretariat at mopreporting@who.int.

Such a letter, if it is prepared at all, could be as simple as stating that the report has been submitted through the online questionnaire.

All implementation reports and the annexes to those reports are available on the Protocol website, on country pages dedicated to each Party that has submitted at least one implementation report. Please access the “Coordination platform” and then, the implementation database.

The global progress reports are prepared by the Convention Secretariat based on the reports submitted by the Parties, and they are submitted for consideration of each regular session of the Meeting of the Parties. The global progress reports are accessible through the “Reporting” tab under the Protocol.