From Protecting Health to Preventing Progress: How the WHO’s Tobacco Treaty Went Off Course

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224)-456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. — During a recent webinar hosted by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA), two leading voices in global public health and tobacco harm reduction called for urgent reform of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The discussion, held as part of TPA’s Good COP 2.0 initiative, featured Dr. Derek Yach, one of the original architects of the FCTC, and Martin Cullip, TPA’s International Fellow and harm reduction advocate.

The event, which took place ahead of the FCTC’s 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) and TPA’s Conference of the People (Good COP) in November, explored the treaty’s 20-year history and its current direction. Both speakers expressed concern that the FCTC—once a groundbreaking framework for reducing global smoking rates—has failed to adapt to scientific and technological advances that could save millions of lives.

Dr. Derek Yach, who played a pivotal role in drafting the FCTC while serving at the WHO, reflected on how global health innovation has evolved since the treaty’s creation.

“The FCTC was developed at the time of the WTO Doha Round that gave highest priority to innovations that led to HIV/AIDS drugs. They have saved millions of lives since,” Yach said. “By contrast, the FCTC failed to anticipate that innovation and science would transform our ability to end smoking. The text is frozen in time and Member States struggle to appreciate that industry innovations are delivering products that are ending smoking and saving millions of lives.”

Yach emphasized that while medical innovation has advanced rapidly over the past two decades, the treaty has not kept pace. He argued that the FCTC’s static language and restrictive stance toward newer, safer nicotine products have prevented governments from fully leveraging harm reduction tools that are already helping smokers quit around the world.

Martin Cullip agreed, noting that the treaty’s original purpose—to reduce the devastating toll of smoking on more than a billion people globally—has been overshadowed by policies that reject innovation.

“The WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has lost sight of its original purpose,” Cullip stated. “It was created to reduce the devastating harm caused by smoking among more than a billion people worldwide. Yet instead of embracing safer nicotine alternatives that are helping to achieve that goal, it now focuses on restricting them. When even one of the treaty’s own founders expresses concern about its direction, it’s clear the FCTC has drifted far from its mission.”

The discussion underscored a growing divide between evidence-based harm reduction strategies and the WHO’s continued emphasis on prohibition-style policies. Both speakers urged COP11 delegates to consider the latest science on reduced-risk nicotine products and to update the FCTC to reflect today’s public health realities.

The webinar was part of TPA’s Good COP 2.0 series, which highlights the importance of transparency, innovation, and consumer choice in global public health policymaking.

A full recording of the discussion is available here.