Indonesian government comes under more pressure to ratify FCTC

Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) is putting pressure on the government immediately to ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), according to a story in The Jakarta Post.

Speaking at the National Seminar on Tobacco Control on Wednesday, Komnas HAM Commissioner Roichatul Aswidah said that tobacco smoke was a serious threat to human rights because it caused mass deaths across the globe annually.

Komnas HAM believed the government had to provide a healthy environment for its citizens by ratifying the treaty and thereby protecting people from the health threats caused by tobacco smoke, Roichatul said.

Earlier this month, Indonesian Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi was reported in another Post story as saying that her government would strive to ensure that Indonesia ratified the FCTC.

The minister said that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had agreed in principle to ratification but wanted firstly to see the government speaking with one voice on the subject. “So I think we will get there, but not yet,” she was quoted as saying.

Data from the Demography Institute of the University of Indonesia shows that cigarette consumption in Indonesia increased from 251 billion cigarettes in 2009 to 302 billion in 2012.