Tobacco.org

• Activists demand implementation of Global Tobacco Treaty 

Despite of more than two years have passed by since the Government of Morocco had signed the FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control) on April 16, 2004, ratification of this global tobacco treaty is still pending. The need to contain tobacco-related diseases, morbidity and mortality, has further intensified.

Tobacco companies have been aggressively promoting their brands and protecting markets, employing lifestyle and glamour imagery and surrogate advertising unabashedly. Tobacco brand placement in films have been under scanner and India's Union Health Minister Dr Ambumani Ramadoss had reaffirmed recently in an interview that “One of the easiest ways to significantly bring down the number of children and youth who get initiated to tobacco use in India, without any budgetary allocation for this public health exercise, is to remove the depiction of tobacco use in films and TV”.

This year again, tobacco control activists in different parts of the world are coming together to organise the 8th International Week of Resistance to Transnational Tobacco companies (IWR) including those in Morocco, from September 25-29, 2006.

A one-day symbolic fast shall be observed in India on Thursday September 28, 2006 at Jantar Mantar. An International release in 20 countries of the 2nd Global Tobacco Treaty Action Guide, produced by Corporate Accountability International (www.stopcorporateabuse.org) with the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) shall be the hallmark of this year's IWR in 20 nations across the globe.

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