ASH’s work is predicated on the precept that the actions of the tobacco business – producing, advertising and marketing, and promoting addictive merchandise that kill when use as supposed – violate human rights, for instance the best to well being.
As such, ASH focuses on 4 key areas of labor:
(1) Phasing out the sale of economic tobacco merchandise,
(2) Utilizing the legislation to carry the tobacco business accountable,
(3) Utilizing a human rights strategy to advance anti-tobacco insurance policies, and
(4) Selling and strengthening world finest practices to scale back tobacco use, just like the WHO Framework Conference on Tobacco Management (FCTC), the UN Plastics Treaty, and extra.
Mixed, these applications intention to remove the tobacco business and finish the tobacco epidemic.
Beneath, we rejoice our key successes in every program in 2025.
Undertaking Sundown: Phasing out the sale of economic tobacco merchandise
ASH’s Undertaking Sundown initiative accelerated the worldwide and U.S. shift towards phasing out industrial tobacco gross sales by turning advocacy into concrete coverage change.
Internationally, ASH convened the first World Tobacco Endgame Summit, galvanizing collaboration amongst advocates, researchers, and policymakers from greater than 25 international locations, informing legislative debates from South Australia to India, and serving to safe landmark progress such because the Maldives’ Tobacco-Free Technology legislation. ASH’s technical help and management inside world alliances strengthened forward-looking measures underneath the FCTC and superior endgame progress within the European Union.
In the USA, ASH hosted the second U.S. Tobacco Endgame Summit, bringing collectively greater than 150 members to coordinate and increase endgame methods nationwide. As well as, ASH continued to coach advocates, policymakers, and researchers by way of its Tobacco Endgame Coverage and Advocacy Course with quarterly dwell discussions.
ASH’s rapid-response technical help and testimony supported the passage of a number of native endgame insurance policies—together with Nicotine-Free Technology legal guidelines in 10 Massachusetts cities, retail phase-outs in Minnesota, complete tobacco gross sales bans in 2 California cities, and cigarette filter bans that triggered a countywide legislation—whereas strengthening state-level efforts in Massachusetts and Nevada. On the federal degree, ASH mobilized broad nationwide help for the FDA’s proposed nicotine discount rule.
Collectively, these actions moved endgame coverage from imaginative and prescient to implementation, delivering measurable progress towards a tobacco-free future.
Utilizing the legislation to carry the tobacco business accountable for the hurt they trigger
ASH superior world tobacco accountability by translating advocacy and thought management into concrete coverage outcomes. By co-chairing the Article 19 working group of the World Alliance for Tobacco Management within the lead-up to FCTC COP11, ASH helped safe a pivotal resolution strengthening the function of legal responsibility as a forward-looking software to carry the tobacco business accountable for the harms it causes. ASH additionally elevated tobacco as a social justice concern on the worldwide stage by presenting on the 2025 World Convention on Tobacco Management in Dublin, highlighting litigation in opposition to the US Meals and Drug Administration for its delay in eradicating menthol in tobacco merchandise and reinforcing the hyperlink between regulatory motion, accountability, and the safety of communities disproportionately harmed by tobacco use.
Utilizing world norms to maneuver native communities towards zero tobacco-use prevalence
ASH leveraged world treaties, human rights mechanisms, and tobacco business monitoring and accountability to drive progress towards zero tobacco-use prevalence on the native and nationwide ranges.
By way of its management at FCTC COP11, ASH helped form a number of landmark selections on forward-looking measures, environmental safety, and business legal responsibility, whereas additionally serving as an skilled reviewer and communications associate—guaranteeing these world norms translated into stronger, enforceable tobacco insurance policies worldwide.
Past the FCTC, ASH elevated tobacco as an environmental and human rights concern by coordinating tobacco coverage advocacy on the UN Plastics Treaty negotiations to advance a world ban on cigarette filters, and by securing specific recognition of tobacco harms in UN human rights our bodies, together with CEDAW’s concluding observations to Luxembourg and critiques by the Committee on the Rights of the Baby.
ASH additional accelerated accountability by documenting rising tobacco business interference in the USA, by way of the 2025 US Tobacco Lobbyist and Lobbying Agency Registration Tracker and the 2025 US Tobacco Trade Interference Index. The Tracker and US Index equip advocates with knowledge and coverage options to counter tobacco business affect. ASH additionally supported DC Tobacco-Free Coalition-led motion on the native degree.
By way of sustained engagement with WHO, PAHO, ECOSOC, and world civil society alliances, ASH remodeled worldwide coverage frameworks into sensible instruments that empower communities and governments to advance towards a tobacco-free future.
Accelerating Coverage Change By way of Strategic Communications
In 2025, ASH amplified its advocacy affect by way of a rare quantity of strategic communications and thought management that prolonged far past the dimensions of its small group, shaping coverage debates worldwide.
ASH produced 12 press statements, 12 world advocacy campaigns, 54 instructional and advocacy blogs, 12 world webinars, and 10 key publications, guaranteeing sustained visibility and affect throughout media, policymaking, and civil society.
This work positioned ASH as a trusted authority in high-profile shops together with CNN, Bloomberg Information, The Christian Science Monitor, MedPage At this time, and The Hill, whereas elevating essential points corresponding to nicotine discount, menthol regulation, tobacco endgame insurance policies, environmental accountability, and tobacco business interference.
By translating complicated world treaty negotiations, human rights victories, and tobacco business knowledge into accessible, action-oriented content material, ASH mobilized advocates, knowledgeable policymakers, and strengthened accountability at native, nationwide, and worldwide ranges.
Collectively, this high-impact output enabled a small group to drive outsized affect—accelerating groundbreaking tobacco insurance policies and strengthening world momentum towards ending the tobacco epidemic.
You play a essential function in our success too. With out your help, a lot of this wouldn’t be attainable.
