Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of Corporate Accountability International (formerly Infact) and the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT), which includes 100 NGOs in more than 50 countries.

We applaud the dramatic progress on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) since its unanimous adoption two years ago by the 56th World Health Assembly, including its entry into force at the end of February 2005--and we congratulate the more than 65 countries that have already ratified. In preparation for the first Conference of the Parties (COP) in February 2006, Corporate Accountability International and our NATT allies are working with our members and many governments to ensure that the FCTC is widely embraced as a health, human rights and corporate accountability treaty.

In this context, we draw the attention of WHA Member States to important progress made during two sessions of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on the FCTC. Led by many of the developing countries that drove the negotiating process, the IGWG formulated useful recommendations to be submitted to the first COP. Implementation issues are not always the most interesting to discuss, but they will have a profound impact on how effectively the substance of the treaty--such as the ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship--can be implemented.

The IGWG worked creatively to envision a Secretariat for the FCTC that is institutionally linked to the WHO but accountable to the COP, and fully funded. There was also broad consensus that the rules on participation of observers, while facilitating the participation of public interest NGOs, must also prevent the tobacco corporations, their subsidiaries and affiliates from infiltrating the COP.

Many of the challenges ahead for the FCTC and contracting Parties revolve around conflicts of interest. Tobacco transnationals like Philip Morris/Altria, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Japan Tobacco International (JTI) have a fundamental conflict of interest with the objective of the FCTC. They are becoming increasingly aggressive and sophisticated in their attempts to undermine and subvert the treaty. Last November, BAT sponsored a beach holiday for 75 members of the Kenyan parliament in advance of debate on a tobacco control bill to implement the FCTC. Last month, the CEO of Philip Morris/Altria reported to shareholders that his corporation is working with Ministries of Health and Education around the world on so-called youth smoking prevention programs.

These kinds of tactics are exactly what the negotiators of the treaty had in mind when they drafted preambular paragraphs 17 and 18, Article 5.3, Article 12(e), and Article 20.4(c). They also prompted this Assembly, early in the FCTC process, to adopt resolution WHA54.18. We urge the Secretariat and Member States, as required by that resolution, to be alert to efforts by the tobacco industry to interfere in health policy development, and ask that WHO report to this body on activities of the tobacco industry that have negative impact on tobacco control efforts.

As NGOs assume a watchdog role in support of the treaty's swift and full implementation, it is essential that both the FCTC COP and its Secretariat have the ability and political will to withstand pressure from outside forces like non-Parties and the tobacco industry.

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