Tobacco industry targets WHO FCTC COP and MOP negotiations, Parties urged to stay vigilant
22 October 2025
https://fctc.who.int/newsroom/news/item/22-10-2025-tobacco-industry-targ...
EXTRACTS
The Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is alerting governments and the public that the tobacco industry is intensifying efforts to interfere with the work of the Conference of the Parties (COP), the treaty’s decision-making body, to weaken global tobacco control measures...
“This is not just lobbying; it is a deliberate strategy to try to derail consensus and weaken measures to further the treaty’s implementation...
Evidence... includes:
Political capture: Attempting to place sympathetic actors in national delegations or influence their selection to sway negotiations.
Front groups and “independent” voices: Industry-funded organisations posing as trade, science, or consumer groups to lobby delegations.
Co-opting science: Sponsoring or promoting misleading research to cast doubt on proven tobacco control measures...
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org