History of the Global Tobacco Treaty

"We, as delegates, have been watching Infact (now Corporate Accountability International) with great admiration. Because they have campaigned ceaselessly to influence public opinion and policymakers' opinion. They've also acted as very efficient watchdogs of the process."

--Dr. Srinath Reddy, delegate of India.

The World Health Assembly (WHA) called for development of the world's first public health treaty to control the spread of tobacco addiction in 1996, and set the negotiating process in motion in 1999. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland put the global tobacco treaty on a "fast track," with the goal of adopting the treaty by May 2003. Member states overcame opposition from the tobacco transnationals and their allies to meet that challenge.

In October 1999 and March 2000, WHO and its Member States convened working groups to prepare the draft elements of the global tobacco treaty. In October 2000, an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) began formal talks on the global tobacco treaty.

Well over 200 Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) around the world have been active on the global tobacco treaty. The Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) was founded by Corporate Accountablity International in the summer of 1999, and is comprised of over 100 consumer, human rights, environmental, faith-based and corporate accountability organizations in more than 50 countries. The Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) was initiated in the fall of 1999, and its members include major international tobacco control and public health organizations.

Throughout the global tobacco treaty process, NGOs have provided technical assistance to government delegates, monitored and exposed tobacco industry abuses such as interference in public health policy, generated direct pressure on tobacco transnationals through tactics like Corporate Accountability International's Boycott targeting Philip Morris/Altria's Kraft Foods, increased visibility of tobacco control issues in the media, and raised public awareness of the global tobacco treaty. NGOs continue to play a vital role in the ratification and implementation of the treaty.

The INB reached agreement on the final text of the global tobacco treaty on March 1, 2003, and forwarded it to the World Health Assembly for adoption in May 2003.

The global tobacco treaty opened for signatures on June 16, 2003, and entered into force on February 27, 2005. (See the current status of the global tobacco treaty here.) Many UN delegates said the treaty could not have happened without NGO support from Corporate Accountability International and NATT.

In this era of unilateralism and corporate globalization, we must expand on this triumph of international cooperation. The global tobacco treaty is a groundbreaking global regulatory instrument, setting precedents for industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals, food and agribusiness, weapons, banking and finance, retail, garments, oil and chemicals. Now is the time to call on international institutions like the United Nations and World Health Organization to live up to their potential to hold corporations accountable.