The ASH Team is in Geneva for the Eleventh Conference of the Parties (COP11) of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) from November 17 – 22, 2025. We will share updates and progress here for our community to stay engaged and informed throughout COP11.
November 21, 2025 – Throughout the opening statements by the Parties at the COP Plenary on Day 1, government delegations were consistent in congratulating the President of the Convention, and then they would go through the various articles to which they claimed compliance. It was so very striking how minimal attention was given to Article 14 on cessation.
It is so disappointing that there have been so few mentions or details about Article 14; such an important aspect of the Framework; the quickest way to decrease the death and disease from tobacco use is cessation.
Yes, quitting nicotine is difficult. Relapse is frequent. However, the majority of people who are addicted to nicotine want to quit and they wish they had never started. There are evidence-based methods to increase the success of quit attempts. The most optimal methodology is a combination of behavioral counseling and pharmacotherapies that have been proven to increase quit success.
Countries must attend to more completely implementing the comprehensive guidelines that were written in 2013 and are still very relevant and pertinent today.
At one side event today, Turning Commitments Into Care: Accelerating Article 14 Implementation, the excellent presentations highlighted the criticality and scarcity of comprehensive cessation policies and practices. All the speakers espoused optimism that we can and will do better for Article 14 on cessation.
As we improve our implementation of the FCTC, driving demand policies that encourage quitting, we must use the human rights-based approach and provide effective cessation to achieve the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
In addition, we should drive supply side policies and work to just end the sale of these products. As ASH Managing Attorney, Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy, said at the side event: “Cessation is an absolutely essential part of tobacco endgame. A human rights approach and human rights mechanisms can help us get there.”
The COP will conclude tomorrow, hopefully with a number of hard-fought Decisions gavelled in during the final plenary. These Decisions will surely change the future of tobacco control. However, a Decision regarding cessation will not be among them; it didn’t even make it to the agenda.