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Long denied their rights to be a participating partner at FCTC COP sessions, tobacco growers, through ITGA, will now apply necessary pressure to gain those rights. Photo credit Henryk Kotowski, Creative Commons.
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Rafael Almonte, director, INTABACO; Dario Vargas, deputy minister of agriculture of the Dominican Republic; and Jose Javier Aranda, COPROTAB at ITGA’s 2022 Americas Regional Meeting. Photo credit: ITGA
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The 2022 Americas Regional Meeting saw ITGA members from Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, the Dominican Republic, and the US convene together on August 5-6. Photo credit: ITGA
In August 2022, the International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA) returned to in-person meetings for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, the 2022 Americas Regional Meeting was held in the location where member organizations met for the last time in 2019 – the Dominican Republic, a country with proud history in tobacco production of more than 500 years. ITGA members from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and the US participated in the discussions carried on August 5 and 6 providing their inputs. It was encouraging to see that the sector remains together and is more consistent than ever. Besides, once again the value of these meetings organized by ITGA at regional level was proven as being an important asset to growers and their associations.
Nevertheless, we currently find ourselves in a completely different international environment. Skyrocketing costs of production, rising inflation, and agricultural insecurity due to the ongoing war in Ukraine are only some of the issues affecting the sector. We are increasingly looking into the devastating effects of climate change that manifest in abnormal weather conditions directly affecting crops. The global regulatory environment is putting additional pressure on the already over-burdened situation faced by growers around the world. The World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is heading an anti-tobacco movement which goes far beyond the consumption impact on health that was at the core of the treaty’s objectives when it entered into force. Today, according to the arguments put forward by the WHO FCTC, tobacco, and its inherent supply chain, is to be blamed for the world’s most negative social and environmental issues.
WHO FCTC Article 17, which focuses on economically sustainable alternatives to tobacco growing, is of extreme importance to farmers but, in our collective opinion, one of the most ignored and downplayed articles of the treaty. This has allowed FCTC to divert attention to other areas of the treaty by always emphasizing the stigmatization of the sector. We have been witnessing this hostility and disrespect for the past 15 years. Tobacco growers in their regions are aware of the viable diversification opportunities and in most cases, especially in countries highly dependent on tobacco production, this diversification is simply not possible.
With the creation of Article 17, growers expected support to find an alternative to tobacco. Unfortunately, the working group for Article 17 failed to provide technical support to growers and its implementation at country level has been poor or non-existent. The conclusion after more than 10 years of investment by countries ratifying the treaty is that this working group has been completely useless to growers and the challenges to replace tobacco remain the same, mainly due to the unrealistic approach by the WHO FCTC working group on Article 17. ITGA strongly believes that FCTC lacks knowledge about tobacco growing and has not provided meaningful technical or financial support to growers. As a result, we have no other choice but to demand inclusion in discussions, policy evolution, and protection from governments to promote adequate measures that may affect growers’ livelihoods.
Our members around the world advocated for their right to legitimately express their concerns as undeniable partners. For over a decade, an awareness campaign on the threats to growers’ livelihood that can result from WHO FCTC policies has shed light on the dangers posed by some of the existing recommendations. ITGA requests WHO FCTC to carry out a realistic implementation of Article 17 and focus on highly dependent tobacco growing countries. It is essential that international institutions and farmers’ organizations should also play an important role in policy development and implementation. Countries should guide educational programs and information campaigns based on data and evidence to avoid any attempt to misinform farmers about the alternative and sustainable livelihoods available to tobacco growers and workers. WHO FCTC is not intended to penalize tobacco growers and workers, but to promote economically viable alternatives.
The misinterpretation of Article 5.3 (industry interference) has been the most powerful tool used by FCTC to prevent the legitimate participation of growers’ representatives in the public sessions of the Conferences of the Parties (COP) organized every two years. Under rule 32 of the FCTC rules of procedures, observers have the right to participate in and speak at public meetings of the COP, but without vote. Reasons presented by the COP Bureau at COP4 to exclude public from public sessions, bears very little relationship to the legal content of Article 5.3. Most delegates to the COP4 session were in opposition to this decision.
The International Law Association (ILA) is the world’s largest association of international lawyers. The ILA created a committee on the accountability of international organizations. According to the work done by this reputable association on international organizations under the principle of good governance, there must be transparency both in the decision-making process and in the implementation of institutional and operational decisions. It also notes that good governance implies that “full access to information is a fundamental element for the responsible functioning of any international organization”.
The current FCTC rules of procedure do not allow FCTC COP to respect its legal obligations of openness and transparency. COP meetings can be considered to operate in an environment of illegal lacunae with regards to participation and information provided. Every time FCTC applies Article 5.3 to close all COP sessions to the public, it is undermining and disrespecting the sovereignty of states, because only individual states, not COP, can address these obligations. No respect has been shown to growers’ representatives who claim the right to follow, attend and speak at COP meetings. It is time to bring consistency to the procedures of these meetings that operate contrary to their own rules and the international rules of procedure that apply to intergovernmental organizations.
Industry interference, according to the scope given to Article 5.3 by FCTC, is the reason why the public should be excluded from observing COP sessions. However, NGOs were accredited under the same distortion of this article, thanks to FCTC secretariat’s arbitrary interpretation. Under this assumption and misinterpretation of the article, ITGA, along with other legitimate entities, has been denied participation in all conferences of the parties.
Tobacco growers will, from now on, put high levels of pressure to ensure their participation and will do their utmost to get their legitimate representation at the future COP. For 15 years FCTC has denied this right to growers and their representatives, acting in violation with its own rules of procedures. ITGA, as the only worldwide association representing tobacco growers around the world, will not exhaust its time knocking on FCTC’s door as it has been the case for the last 15 years. ITGA together with its growers’ associations at national level will demand protection at the highest level from governments to the United Nations to ensure that the integrity of the rules applied to international associations are respected at COP meetings. The next one will take place in Panama in 2023.
Tobacco growers appeal to all partners within and outside of the sector, mainly governments, companies, and other relevant players in the value chain, considering that tobacco production is an important generator of employment and provides great economic benefits in the countries where it is grown, to come together and face the common challenges in a united way.