COP11 and MOP4 resource hub

Maximizing transparency and strengthening industry accountability through the global tobacco treaty

Welcome to the resource center for the upcoming meetings of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) for party delegations and representatives of observer organizations. (Access this information in French and Spanish).

This year, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the ratification of the global tobacco treaty. In the past two decades, this precedent-setting international agreement has placed a firewall between corporate interests and public health. With the support of 183 countries, the treaty protects 90% of the world’s population through smoke-free laws, tobacco taxes, advertising bans, and cigarette package warning labels. It has served as a strong global health precedent for safeguards around industry interference through Article 5.3 and liability through Article 19.

But transnational tobacco corporations continue to find ways to interfere with public health across the globe — as recently addressed on the World Conference on Tobacco Control declaration–at the the expense of our lives, health, and planet. And that’s why these negotiations, Eleventh Conference of the Parties (COP11) and the Fourth Meeting of the Parties (MOP4) of its Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (the Protocol), taking place in Geneva from November 17 – 26, are critical.

Despite the strong support for Article 5.3, the treaty’s provision to keep Big Tobacco out of health policy, the industry’s attempts to influence, derail, and weaken its critical measures continues. This year, Parties have the ability to rein in these abusive corporations. This resource hub will help you leverage your power and participation to advance treaty progress, including:

Guidance on how to submit your Declaration-of-Interest form (DOI) to help protect policymaking from the influence of the tobacco industry (sample form here.)
Recommendations for strengthening the implementation of Article 19, a provision that encourages countries and governments to hold the tobacco industry liable for its abuses.
Key resources on what’s at stake at COP11 and MOP4 that will help you and your peers use these policy meetings to improve the lives and health of people around the world.

Explore the sections below to learn more.

Safeguarding the treaty against industry interference

Big Tobacco has a long and well-documented history of interfering in public health policy around the globe to protect its own profits. And since the treaty’s ratification, it’s only doubled down.

A few examples of the industry’s interference at the treaty meetings:

Tobacco corporations have used “public” badges, a resource meant for media and civil society to participate and observe the negotiations, to infiltrate and influence policy and decision-making. Tobacco industry representatives have posed as journalists and civil society members in order to manipulate and intimidate delegates and collect information about treaty decisions that help them undermine progress at the meetings. These representatives have also lured delegates from the negotiation venue to fancy afterparties and decadent dinners aimed at promoting products like e-cigarettes and noncombustable devices.
During COP7 in New Delhi, Philip Morris International set up shop at a hotel one hour away from the conference center and held secret meetings with delegates from the Vietnamese government and other treaty members. These one-on-one sessions were part of the corporation’s broader effort to weaken and block lifesaving treaty provisions, advance measures that undermine public health, and undo protections aimed at reducing smoking.
From 2008 – 2013, British American Tobacco (BAT) undermined public health policy and carried out corporate espionage in Africa. BAT made more than 200 questionable payments to politicians, civil servants, and journalists across the continent to secure a competitive advantage, obtain information, and influence tobacco control policies. Research by the Tobacco Control Research Group, the University of Bath, and other partners indicated that the corporation’s actions were not an outlying incident but exemplified its regular mode of operation to maintain monopolistic control.
Most recently, Philip Morris International allegedly recruited the Party members in the Philippines, a former tobacco control champion, to advance its agenda at COP10.

As former Finnish Health Minister and chair of the FCTC committee Pekka Puska stated, despite the popular notion of Big Tobacco’s decline in relevance, the “tobacco industry is more powerful than ever.” That’s why parties have a legal obligation to protect public health policymaking from industry influence. And one important way to fulfill that obligation is by submitting a Declaration-of-Interest form before the COP11 and MOP4 negotiations begin.

How to complete your Declaration-of-Interest form:

Open this document about maximizing transparency.
Refer to the Annex sections and choose the template appropriate to your delegation:
- Party States: Annex 1, page 6.
- Non-Party States: Annex 2, page 7.
- Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs): Annex 3, page 8.
- Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) Annex 4, page 9.
- Members of the public and the media: Annex 5, page 10.
Copy applicable template to a Word document and fill out the form.
Submit your form during the time of registration. For more information, please refer to the toolkit for delegates, prepared by the Convention Secretariat for COP and MOP.

It is up to all of us—Party members, civil society observers, and members of the media—to stay vigilant against industry interference. Corporate Accountability and our allies will monitor Big Tobacco’s actions and presence at the negotiations. If you become aware of any interference attempts, please contact [email protected].

Advancing liability and holding Big Tobacco accountable

For too long, the tobacco industry has used legal threats to intimidate governments into abandoning the powerful treaty measures that aim to save millions of lives. Article 19 gives parties the opportunity to hold Big Tobacco accountable for these actions.

Article 19 is both powerful and underutilized. The provision encourages governments to take legal, legislative, or administrative action against the tobacco industry, and force the corporations that have profited at the expense of our health, our lives, and our planet to pay for the past and future harms caused by their products.

Article 19 can also help recover healthcare costs and environmental damages caused by tobacco products, unlock resources for lifesaving tobacco measures, and make it harder for the industry to continue its abuses.

COP11 is a pivotal moment to make Big Tobacco pay for its harms. By endorsing the draft COP decision at the Closing Plenary and implementing the Expert Group’s recommendations (agenda item 6.5) to access civil, criminal, and administrative domains, Parties can protect public health, safeguard the environment, recover costs, and ensure that the tobacco industry is held fully accountable.

But the work to hold the industry liable does not stop in the Geneva negotiating halls. It has to be moved forward country by country, across the globe. Through the Civil Liability Toolkit, Parties can get practical guidance to help them determine how to embark on the legal process, depending on their context and circumstances. Parties can also find the support they need through the Legal Expert database, which provides contact information for legal experts and professionals skilled in industry and corporate litigation.