The ASH Crew is in Geneva for the Eleventh Convention of the Events (COP11) of the WHO Framework Conference on Tobacco Management (FCTC) from November 17 – 22, 2025. We are going to share updates and progress right here for our neighborhood to remain engaged and knowledgeable all through COP11.
November 20, 2025 – As predicted within the Day 3 weblog, debate in regards to the Article 2.1 Skilled Group report and resolution on Ahead Trying Measures (also referred to as tobacco endgame) soaked up time till the top of the day. These measures are broadly grouped below 4 domains: tobacco provide, institutional construction/market, product and client. Learn the report and draft resolution right here.
At this time’s enterprise included dialogue of Agenda merchandise 4.4, which focuses on Articles 9 and 10 specializing in the testing and measuring of the contents and emissions of tobacco merchandise, regulation of those contents and emissions, in addition to requiring disclosure on the toxicity and addictiveness of tobacco merchandise. Work on Articles 9 and 10 began at COP 1 and measures have been adopted at COP 4 and COP 7. A Working Group had been established, however progress stalled, so an Skilled Group was then created, which issued partial tips associated Articles 9 and 10. At COP 10, the advice was that future work on Articles 9 and 10 ought to be deferred for a future COP.
Whereas consensus has not been reached on tips, work has continued to make sure Events have the mandatory technical experience and assist for implementation, bearing in mind the broad variety of merchandise and continuously evolving product panorama. WHO launched a report on strengthening implementation of Articles 9 and 10, together with a report final week from the Tobacco Product Regulation group that supplied steerage on many matters together with sugars, flavors, and design options that make tobacco merchandise enticing to youth, in addition to suggestions for standardized product testing, which has been applied at 5 facilities for tobacco product regulation established in numerous international locations internationally (see right here and right here).
Work additionally continued on Agenda Merchandise 4.2 about tobacco trade legal responsibility (Article 19), and Agenda merchandise 4.3, in regards to the safety of the surroundings (Article 18). Yesterday, ASH participated in a facet occasion on Article 19 that highlighted efforts by governmental and non-governmental actors in international locations around the globe to carry the trade legally accountable for the loss of life, illness, and environmental harm it has induced.
As all the time, there’s a chance of hours of debate about all of those agenda objects. Right here, the phrases of Mexico on the opening plenary are pertinent:
“…on the market, tens of millions of persons are being persuaded daily to devour merchandise that kill, and for that cause, we can not interact in round discussions whereas the tobacco trade reorganizes, disguises itself, and continues to advance. They promote us dependancy, phantasm, and now, as soon as once more, the misleading notion of decreased threat.”
