Billionaire philanthropists Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates have launched a joint fund to help developing countries pass tobacco-control laws in their legal battle with industry giants.
The Anti-Tobacco Trade Litigation Fund, backed by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aims “to combat the tobacco industry’s use of international trade agreements to threaten and prevent countries from passing strong tobacco-control laws,” its creators said.
“We are at a critical moment in the global effort to reduce tobacco use, because the significant gains we have seen are at risk of being undermined by the tobacco industry’s use of trade agreements and litigation,” said Mr Bloomberg, a former New York mayor.
“We will stand with nations as they work to protect their populations against the deadly health effects of tobacco use.”
As part of the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi, Mr Bloomberg granted governments and NGOs in Brazil, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, Ukraine and Uruguay his Philanthropies Awards for Global Tobacco Control for “significant strides” they had made in implementing tobacco control policies.
Huge lawsuits scare low-income countries from legislating
Uruguay was the first country in Latin America to ban smoking in public spaces, a measure it enacted in 2006.
Cigarette packs carry graphic pictures of cancer patients to warn smokers of the dangers, tobacco firms are forbidden from using marketing terms such as “light” or “mild,” and cigarette ads are banned from television, radio and newspapers.
The crackdown prompted industry giant Philip Morris to hit back by suing Uruguay for $25 million at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in 2010, alleging that the country had violated treaties by devaluing its trademarks and investments.
Several other countries have been threatened by similar lawsuits from big tobacco companies.
“Country leaders who are trying to protect their citizens from the harms of tobacco should not be deterred by threats of costly legal challenges from huge tobacco companies,” Mr Gates said.
“Australia won its first case, which sends a strong message. But smaller, developing countries don’t have the same resources. That’s why we are supporting the Anti-Tobacco Trade Litigation Fund with Bloomberg Philanthropies,” said the Microsoft co-founder, in a televised statement during the awards ceremony.
Among its several means of support, the fund will offer “technical assistance in legislative drafting and documentation to avoid legal challenges and potential trade disputes from the passage of tobacco-control laws,” its founders said.
The fund will support global tobacco-control efforts, coordinate efforts in fighting the industry and offer low- and medium-income countries financial support and access to high quality legal assistance.
The World Health Organisation warned that although smoker numbers were declining in many parts of the world, upward trends in African and Mediterranean countries meant the global total would not change much during the next decade.
About 80 per cent of the world’s one billion smokers, it said, lived in low- and middle-income countries.
According to the WHO, one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco – nearly six million people each year.
Smoking could kill one billion people this century, it said.
Participants at the conference have warned that unless urgent action is taken, the annual death toll could rise to eight million by 2030.
AFP