Endgame Training Course

United Nations

INC-4 Day 0: UN Plastic Pollution Treaty Negotiations

April 22, 2024 – The fourth round of negotiations for the UN Treaty to End Plastic Pollution formally begins tomorrow, April 23rd, here in Ottawa. There has already been enough preliminary activity and speeches to warrant an early update. But it’s not great. As you may recall, ASH and our

International Advocacy Leads to Local and Global Progress

By: Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy, Managing Attorney at ASH Throughout my time at ASH, I have visited the United Nations, both in New York and in Geneva, many times. But every single time I step onto a UN campus, I’m awestruck. This is where international change is made, and I am so

INC-3 Day 6/7: UN Plastics Pollution Treaty Negotiations

November 20, 2023 – INC-3 adjourned on Sunday, November 19th with a decision for the Secretariat to provide a revised zero draft text. The text will be available by December 31, 2023 and will serve as the subsequent document to be negotiated at INC-4, which will be held from April 21-30,

INC-3 Day 5: UN Plastics Pollution Treaty Negotiations

November 17, 2023 – The contact groups continued with the publication of the written submissions and revised synthesis documents. The Stop Tobacco Pollution Alliance (STPA) and its allies spent much of the day reviewing everything as we were able. (Available online for those following along). Today’s debates centered around how and

INC-3 Day 4: UN Plastics Pollution Treaty Negotiations

November 16, 2023 – Contact Groups continued today in the run up to the plenary, which was quite brief. The plenary only included a review of each Contact Groups’ progress and the next steps on the agenda for each group. Contact Groups 2 and 3 have completed their first round

INC-3 Day 3: UN Plastics Pollution Treaty Negotiations

November 15, 2023 – Day 3 brought back-to-back to back Contact Group sessions. The atmosphere is intense with member states eager to maximize their time available in Nairobi for INC-3 negotiations. Today, we also learned that the day would be extended to accommodate another evening Contact Group 1 session. Robust

INC-3 Day 2: UN Plastics Pollution Treaty Negotiations

November 14, 2023 – Per usual INC was off to a slow start, running behind on the agenda which was revised overnight to allow for added plenary time this morning to accommodate additional member state interventions and observer interventions. Despite the delays, we were very pleased to see Panama, Uruguay,

INC-3 Day 1: UN Plastics Pollution Treaty Negotiations

November 13, 2023 – The third negotiating session of the UN Treaty to End Plastic Pollution, held at United Nations Environmental Programme headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya began today, commencing another 7 days of discussion on ways to combat the devasting impact of plastic pollution on our planet. Though we are

33 Countries Support Human Rights Based Approach to UN Plastic Pollution Treaty

March 17, 2023 | Geneva, Switzerland Andres del Castillo of Peru addresses the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of Peru, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Vanuatu, Brazil, Portugal, Luxemburg, Malta, Armenia, Chile, Mexico, Georgia, Finland, Germany, Ukraine, Croatia, Cyprus, Maldives, Slovenia, Uruguay, Ireland, Panamá, Colombia, Belgium, Angola, Paraguay, Switzerland, France, Marshall

Synopsis and Prospects: UN Plastics Pollution Treaty Negotiations

December 5, 2022 – The first of five Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) meetings for the UN Plastics Pollution treaty is finished. The plan is to approve a final text roughly two years from now, which will be handed over to the UN Environmental Assembly for adoption. Then it will be opened

Day 4: UN Plastics Pollution Treaty Negotiations

December 1, 2022 – Today, ASH was able to make a second intervention during the plenary discussions on the role of nongovernmental stakeholders in negotiations going forward. Many thanks to our allies in the environmental coalition for their vital input. Here is our intervention, to give you a taste of

Day 3: UN Plastics Pollution Treaty Negotiations

November 30, 2022 – Today, several delegations mentioned the need to ensure basic human rights as we hammer out a treaty to end plastics pollution. This got me to thinking. It should be all about human rights. In the discussions leading up to INC-1, as I’ve mentioned previously, “inclusiveness” has

Day 2: UN Plastics Pollution Treaty Negotiations

November 29, 2022 – The highlight of today was a three-hour Multi-Stakeholder Forum. If that title sets off your radar, your radar is well-calibrated. The industries that have caused the plastic pollution problem were given the same platform and respect as civil society groups struggling to stop them. Some were

Day 1: UN Plastics Pollution Treaty Negotiations

November 28, 2022 – Greetings from Punta del Este. Today is an historic day in the history of environmental protection. At 10:00am local time, the first round of negotiations for the global plastics pollution treaty got under way. Whether it was a good day or a bad is to be

ASH at the UN Human Rights Council 50th Session

June 2022 – ASH staff had the opportunity to participate in the United Nations Human Rights Council 50th session, in Geneva, Switzerland. The Human Rights Council is an “inter-governmental body within the United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for

HRC Submission June 2020

NGO Joint Submission to the UN Human Rights Coucil

In advance of the 44th session of the United Nations Human Right’s Council (HRC) this June, ASH and several partners submitted a formal statement addressing tobacco in the global human rights agenda. Read our joint submission here.

Joint Letter to the United Nations Secretary-General

Secretary General António Guterres                                                                                                     19 July 2019 United Nations, S-233 New York, NY 10027   Dear Secretary General Guterres, RE: The role of the tobacco industry in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development We are writing to you regarding a note on the role of the tobacco industry in the

The Human Rights Council and Universal Periodic Review

The Human Rights Council (HRC) is a United Nations (UN) body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. While there have been a limited number of resolutions that are directly relevant to tobacco control, there are many others that could support a human rights based

Global Mechanisms – The United Nations

This global mechanisms section encompasses official documents including resolutions, statements, letters, and more that pertain to tobacco control and human rights at the international level, but do not fall under a human rights treaty body. UN Statements, Resolutions and Declarations Relevant to Tobacco Control and Human Rights UN Statements on

The U.S. Is Not Living Up to Its Obligation to Protect the Health of Its Citizens

All countries around the world, including the United States, have committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to strengthen universal peace and eradicate poverty.  The harms that tobacco products cause to society are well known. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death,

2015 was a Very Bad Year for the Tobacco Industry

And it’s only going to get worse for them. I was asked two weeks ago to blog about my end-of-year thoughts. Something told me to procrastinate, and I am glad I did. Within 24 hours before putting fingers to keyboard, good news came from afar. First, after several years of

Human Rights Day 2015

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

UN Officially Recognizes that Tobacco Makes the World Poorer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Megan Arendt Office: 202-659-4310 Email: arendtm@ash.org UN Officially Recognizes that Tobacco Makes the World Poorer Sustainable Development Goals Adopted at UN Summit NEW YORK, NY – Friday, September 25, 2015 – Today, the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a plan