Throughout the WHO FCTC Conference of the Parties (COP), the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control (GATC) awards the Orchid to a stand out Party and the Dirty Ashtray to a Party working counter to a strong FCTC.
On Tuesday, November 18, 2025, Mexico won the Orchid Award in the GATC Daily Bulletin:
“For delivering one of the most powerful and uncompromising statements against the tobacco industry at COP11 [on 17 November], a moment of particular significance for the region. Mexico made a clear and forceful call for global action, explicitly naming the industry as the biggest obstacle to progress. Their strong and passionate appeal sets the tone for COP11 and reinforces the urgency of holding the tobacco industry accountable!”
FCTC COP11 Opening Plenary Intervention from Mexico on November 17, 2025
[English Translation Below]
Quiero comenzar con una convicción simple: La salud pública requiere decisiones valientes. Venir a esta asamblea a mover una coma o revisar semántica cuando el problema no es diagnóstico, sino de acción, es quedarnos cortos frente a una realidad urgente. Porque allá afuera millones de personas están siendo persuadidas cada día para consumir productos que matan, por eso no podemos tener discusiones circulares mientras la industria tabacalera se reorganiza, se disfraza y avanza. Nos venden adicción, ilusión y ahora una vez más el engañoso riesgo reducido.
Hoy las niñas y los niños son su blanco predilecto para captar consumidores en edades tempranas. Cigarrillos electrónicos, bolsas de nicotina, dispositivos en aerosol que prometen modernidad, pero entregan enfermedad. Invocando falsamente libertades civiles, compran voluntades, financian campañas y penetran ministerios de salud y economía y organizaciones civiles. Y lo más grave, debilitan la obligación del Estado de proteger a su pueblo y, cuando aparece la enfermedad, con un cinismo sin medida, se disfrazan de benefactoras donando equipos a los mismos hospitales donde muere la gente por su causa.
Seamos sinceros, esta batalla no la podemos librar solos; ellos tienen poder económico y, a veces, lamentablemente, también poder político. Mientras nosotros apenas vamos, ellos ya vienen de regreso. Si seguimos actuando aislados, si cada país mantiene su propia estrategia, todo dependerá de la voluntad del gobierno en turno y eso nos vuelve vulnerables. Cuando cambian los gobiernos, cambian las prioridades y muchos terminan cediendo ante las empresas; por eso necesitamos medidas normativas, regulatorias y legales, que, respetando la autonomía de los pueblos, sirvan como referencia universal para que las políticas de salud no dependan del giro político, sino del compromiso ético con la vida. Es lastimoso ver países que abren sus puertas a la industria tabacalera; y cada puerta que se le abre al tabaco en cualquier forma o día es una ventana que se le cierra a la salud. Derrotar a la salud pública es derrotar a la nación, y cada gobierno que cede a la industria no solo traiciona a su pueblo, nos traiciona a todos. Por eso les conmino a que construyamos un frente común internacional que no se deje dividir por tecnicismos y no por intereses comerciales; defender la salud pública exige firmeza, no retórica. Hoy aquí en Ginebra hagamos historia, dejemos de debatir palabras y convirtamos este momento en un punto de inflexión para la salud pública.
English Translation
I want to begin with a simple conviction: public health requires courageous decisions. Coming to this assembly to move a comma or revise semantics, when the problem is not diagnosis but action, means we are falling short in the face of an urgent reality. Because out there, millions of people are being persuaded every day to consume products that kill, and for that reason, we cannot engage in circular discussions while the tobacco industry reorganizes, disguises itself, and continues to advance. They sell us addiction, illusion, and now, once again, the deceptive notion of reduced risk.
Today, children are their preferred targets to capture consumers at an early age. Electronic cigarettes, nicotine pouches, aerosol devices that promise modernity but deliver disease. Deceptively invoking civil liberties, they buy influence, finance campaigns, and infiltrate ministries of health and economy, as well as civil society organizations. And most concerning, they weaken the State’s obligation to protect its people; and when illness appears, with boundless cynicism, they disguise themselves as benefactors by donating equipment to the very hospitals where people die because of them.
Let us be honest: we cannot fight this battle alone; they have economic power and, unfortunately, sometimes political power as well. When we are just beginning, they are already three steps ahead. If we continue acting in isolation, if each country maintains its own strategy, everything will depend on the will of the government in power, making us vulnerable. When governments change, priorities change, and many end up giving in to these companies. This is why we need normative, regulatory, and legal measures that, while respecting the autonomy of nations and their people, serve as universal references so that health policies do not depend on political shifts but on an ethical commitment to life. It is painful to see countries opening their doors to the tobacco industry, as every door that is opened to tobacco in any form or on any day is a window closed to health. Undermining public health is undermining the nation, and every government that yields to the industry not only betrays its own people, it betrays all of us. Therefore, I urge you to build a common international front that cannot be divided by technicalities or commercial interests. Defending public health requires conviction, not rhetoric. Today, here in Geneva, let us make history. Let us stop debating words and turn this moment into a turning point for public health.