Human rights based approach to tobacco control

The Human Rights and Tobacco Control Network is a new global coalition of constituents committed to the human rights based approach(HRBA) to tobacco control. After two initial meetings in the USA sponsored by the University of Minnesota, it became clearly evident that the HRBA to tobacco control is predominantly an ex-USA issue and therefore needed to become a global movement. Subsequent meetings occurred in Lausanne, Switzerland, Mumbai, India and Geneva, Switzerland at WHO headquarters. Partners represented tobacco control, legal advocates, human rights practitioners and the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. This new HRTCN has significantly broadened the opportunity for partnerships from diverse human rights groups and is a mechanism that is able to provide legal remedies to numerous tobacco control issues. The Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) is the first public health treaty created, and is based on human rights principles and Conventions. Through the Conventions, from which the FCTC was developed, there are numerous Articles that delineate the various human rights that can be directly implicated in tobacco control. The most prominent of these human rights is the Right to Health as described in the Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – a convention to which the overwhelming majority of countries have ratified. The HRBA to tobacco control provides a novel tool – one which has the potential of legal remedy for human rights abuses.