Tobacco is increasingly being recognized globally as a human rights challenge.
This is reflected by the Cape Town Declaration on Human Rights being adopted by the World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH), the International Conference of the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP), and the Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health (APACT).
The 17th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) closed on Friday, March 9, 2018 with the adoption of 11 Declarations, including the groundbreaking Cape Town Declaration on Human Rights and a Tobacco-free World.
On May 23, 2018, 163 organizations (first released to media as 154 organizations) from all World Health Organization regions announced their support for the Cape Town Declaration as signatories. See the 163 signatory organizations at the end of the Cape Town Declaration PDF here. Individuals can add their names to the Cape Town Declaration here.
At WCTOH, we coordinated a social media photo booth (#TobaccoViolation) to help attendees show their support for the Cape Town Declaration and tobacco as a human rights issue. Below are some of the highlights.
This was a historic moment reaffirming that the tobacco industry infringes on human rights. And it was just the beginning of a snowball effect.
The 3rd International Conference of the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP) was organized in partnership with the Comité Nacional para la Prevención del Tabaquismo (CNPT) and hosted in Madrid, Spain from June 14-16, 2018.
ASH’s Executive Director Laurent Huber gave the conference’s keynote address on uniting to combat the tobacco epidemic and regulating cigarettes in proportion to the harm they cause. He also noted that the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) must be a recipe for implementation, not a menu from which to choose.
The 2018 ENSP-CNPT conference closed with the adoption of the Cape Town Declaration by the Chair of the Spanish Alliance, the President of ENSP Francisco Rodriguez Lozano, a former Spanish Health Minister, and the current Spanish Health Minister.
The next conference to address the Cape Town Declaration was the 12th Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health (APACT) held in Bali, Indonesia from September 13-15, 2018. APACT adopted the declaration at their closing ceremonies as well.
We hope additional conferences will follow in the footsteps of these three key health and tobacco control conferences and adopt the Cape Town Declaration on Human Rights and a Tobacco-Free World.
Our WCTOH #TobaccoViolation photo booth
