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Chair,
Distinguished
Delegates,
Friends,
Welcome to Geneva and to the fourth round of
negotiations on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
Just over a year away from our deadline for
concluding this important work on new global rules to save lives and
prevent disease, the stakes can hardly be higher.
We all know the statistics - eight people die every
minute due to tobacco, more than 4 million lives are lost every year,
10 million every year by 2030. In repeating them, we sometimes forget
what they really mean, in the lives of individuals, families and
societies.
There must be few people in this room who have not
lost a relative or a friend to tobacco. Every single one of those four
million people who died last year could have lived longer - five years
longer, 10 years longer, 20 years longer. None of them needed to have
suffered months and years of lingering pain and repeated visits to the
hospital, none needed to have coped with dashed hopes and anguished
families.
It is these lives and lost years which provide us
the answers to those who will speak to you of profits and marketing
gains, of special concessions and "reasonable" campaigns.
There is nothing reasonable about tobacco deaths. We can never hope to
measure the real cost of these lost moments, of the pain and loss of
even a single life lost needlessly to tobacco.
The treaty negotiations are on track and we are
here this week to ensure that they stay on track. We have grasped the
urgency. Since our last meeting here, Member States have met in India,
Poland, Ivory Coast, Peru, Malaysia and Egypt to study and deliberate
on the text. They have debated issues and diagnosed their options.
The pace and depth of activity on tobacco control
has been very encouraging. Here in WHO we stand ready to help
countries with this work. Our Tobacco Free Initiative was conceived as
a pathfinder in the area of public health where law and
communications, economics and science would merge to propose multi-sectoral
options to a health problem.
If we have the will and courage to do what is
right, we do have the means. We know what works: a comprehensive
international tobacco control plan that includes advertising and
sponsorship bans, tax reforms, ending of subsidies, anti-smuggling
measures, product regulation, education and cessation support.
I wish you all a meaningful and successful
negotiating session.
Thank you.
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