- the tobacco industry should be required to be transparent about its activities, a measure which will help to counter interference by Big Tobacco's front groups and allied organizations.
"This week a diversity of countries, facing a diversity of tobacco industry offenses, arrived on a set of universal principles to strip this industry of its ability to threaten public health," said Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) spokesperson Bobby Ramakant. "An important precedent has been set that life-threatening corporate practices will not be tolerated."
Ratifying countries also approved strong guidelines for tobacco product packaging and banning tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, but funding to support treaty implementation remains in question.
"In sum, these meetings have been an overwhelming victory for tobacco control," said Sam Ochieng from NATT in Kenya. "But now our work begins anew in implementing this landmark treaty. Our initiatives on the ground will require increased funding and constant vigilance against an industry whose profit-driven avarice will continue to challenge our advances, though its power to do so has been greatly reduced."
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