There are numerous other issues that provide legal or political precedent that can be applied to tobacco and human rights. Environment Environmental Issues that are Indirectly Relevant to Tobacco Climate Litigation against Companies: An Overview of Legal Arguments 2018- The Business and Human Rights Resource Center tracked 14 climate lawsuits
Some advocates have begun using human rights arguments in litigation against the tobacco industry. Below are several cases relevant to human rights, but this list is far from exhaustive of all tobacco litigation. For a much more in depth look at tobacco litigation worldwide, please visit the excellent resource put
Landmark case gives governments more discretion in health policies Contact: Megan Arendt, (202) 659 – 4310 Statement of Laurent Huber, Executive Director, Action on Smoking & Health WASHINGTON, DC – June 28, 2018 – In a long-awaited and welcome decision, today the World Trade Organization (WTO) found in favor of
**UPDATE 3** – Beginning on November 26, 2017 the public will begin seeing long-awaited “corrective statements” by the tobacco industry on television and in newspapers. The major U.S. tobacco companies were ordered by the court to issue these ads because those companies had “deliberately deceived” the American public about topics
This collaborative analysis from the National Cancer Institute and the World Health Organization is the result of several years’ work from noted experts in economics, public health and law. It is the most detailed look yet at the economic harm caused by tobacco use. ASH Deputy Director Chris Bostic was
What will the next four years hold for the anti-tobacco movement in the U.S.? We can’t say for sure, and if the recent track record of pollsters tells us anything, it is that concrete political predictions are a fool’s game. But for those of us concerned about tobacco and public
The tobacco industry lost its High Court challenge to the UK government’s regulations on standardised “plain” cigarette packaging. Read more>
A Manhattan Supreme Court judge has awarded a co-op apartment owner more than $120,000 in maintenance and fees after she sued over damage to her place from people smoking in neighboring apartments, which she said also affected her health. Read more>
Queensland has passed some of the toughest smoking laws in the country. From September 1, lighting up will be outlawed at or near childcare facilities, bus stops and taxi ranks, public pools, children’s sporting venues, skate parks and outdoor malls. The new laws also ban the sale of tobacco products
A legal victory is one thing but for lawyers for a tobacco company to publicly celebrate denying potential cancer victims the best way of identifying lung disease as early as possible seems reprehensible. . . even for a law firm. Read on>
A decade after a group of American smokers sued Philip Morris USA to try to force the cigarette maker to pay for lung cancer screenings, the case will finally be heard by a jury. Smokers from Massachusetts allege in the class-action lawsuit that Philip Morris manufactured a defective cigarette knowing
Cigarette company Philip Morris has suffered another defeat in its long-running bid to overturn Australia’s plain packaging laws. An arbitration tribunal based in Singapore has issued a unanimous decision agreeing with Australia’s position that it has no jurisdiction to hear Philip Morris’s claim. The Public Health Association of Australia described
December 10th is recognized worldwide as Human Rights Day. It commemorates the anniversary of the day that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. The UDHR and other human rights treaties, both international and regional, protect myriad rights around the world, including
The tobacco epidemic continues to spread around the world. Tobacco is unique – no other product kills half of its consumers when used exactly as intended. If tobacco products were released as new products today, they would quickly be banned, and civil and criminal cases would be brought against tobacco
ASH’s tobacco criminal liability program was created to investigate the possibility of holding tobacco corporations and their executives criminally liable for the millions of tobacco-related deaths. The tobacco and human rights program is related; it seeks to investigate the use of international and regional human rights bodies and treaties as
Could tobacco executives/corporations be found guilty of human right violations? ASH is investigating the possibility of holding tobacco corporations responsible for tobacco-related deaths under human rights laws. These charges, for example, a violation of the right to life or right to health, among many others, would be levied against governments
Bloomberg said: “Someday somebodies going to come along and say to the people who are running these companies, you are killing people. If you kill somebody on the streets with a gun or beat them over the head, we put you in jail or worse. “These people [tobacco companies] deliberately
In 2011, the United Nations General Assembly declared October 11 as the International Day of the Girl, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges that girls face around the world. Girls and women around the world face challenges unique to their gender- discrimination, violence, education disparities- but one issue
No final consensus has been reached on whether any exclusion would target only tobacco companies or shield a wider range of government regulations from legal action, but Australia’s Andrew Robb is optimistic about his country’s push for a broad carve-out for both health and environmental regulations. “I think we’re on
Recently, a landmark case was decided in federal court in Georgia. The subject of the case? Peanut butter. The Peanut Butter Case: United States of America vs. Stewart Parnell From 2008-2009, there was an outbreak of salmonella infections in the U.S., an epidemic eventually linked to contaminated peanut butter. As
The American Society of International Law ( ASIL), the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network ( ACS CAN), and ASH hosted: Tobacco and International Law: Evaluating and Enforcing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Wednesday, September 16, 2015 The world’s first public health treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco
Many Americans view smoking, and secondhand smoke, as a problem that has mostly been solved, at least in the United States. However, only half of all Americans are protected from exposure to secondhand smoke, whether in public places or at work. Several countries around the world have achieved complete protection
In 2012, Australia implemented tough anti-tobacco regulations, requiring that all cigarettes be sold in plain, logo-free brown packages dominated by health warnings. Philip Morris Asia filed suit, claiming that this violated its intellectual-property rights and would damage its investments. The company sued Australia in domestic court and lost. But it
An article written by ASH Staff Attorney Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy was recently published in the American Bar Association’s “International Law News.” The article discusses the growing problem of tobacco use in Latin American countries. There are 145 million current smokers in Latin America, more than half of whom will die from
