ILO pressed on tobacco link
Producers and consumers: Tobacco farmers await payment at the Lilongwe tobacco auction in Malawi.
Government members of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) governing body have been told that the expiration in December of the ILO’s contract with Japan Tobacco International – the organization’s only remaining contract with the tobacco industry – creates an opportunity for the ILO to start afresh in 2019.
The advice comes in an open letter posted on the website of the Framework Convention Alliance and signed by about 100 ‘public health, development, human rights, and corporate accountability organizations’.
The letter states, in part: ‘While the world waits for the ILO to align itself with the 181 countries party to the WHO [World Health Organization] Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), at this 334th Governing Body meeting [scheduled for today], we, the undersigned organizations, respectfully request the following decisions be adopted:
- No longer accept any funding from the tobacco industry including corporations profiting from tobacco and ancillary groups that receive tobacco industry funds, in accordance with the UN model policy;
- Implement the integrated strategy using Regular Budget Supplementary Account funds in the short term;
- Work closely with relevant UN agencies, e.g. FAO, UNDP, to assist tobacco farmers and workers to find alternate livelihood; and
- Allow current contracts with the tobacco industry to expire, do not negotiate for the renewal of expired contracts, and do not establish any new contracts with the tobacco industry or its proxies.’
The full version of the letter is here.