Get an in-depth look at the upcoming 11th session of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Conference, scheduled for November 2025 in Geneva. This video explores the registration process for attending the conference, the challenges faced by harm reduction groups, and the importance of consumer representation in tobacco and nicotine policy discussions.
Transcription:
00:04 - 01:04
[Joanna Junak]
Hello and welcome. I'm Joanna Junak and this is GFN News on GFN.TV. The 11th session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control will take place at Geneva in November. The meeting will gather government delegations from around the world to discuss tobacco and nicotine policy. As always, the question is, can any groups representing THR attend? Nancy Lucas, CAFROS Executive Coordinator, is with us today to give us more details about the registration process for the conference, as well as to share her thoughts on it. Hello Nancy, thank you for joining us today.
01:05 - 01:08
[Nancy Loucas]
Hi, Joanna. Thank you for the invitation. I'm honored.
01:10 - 01:15
[Joanna Junak]
Can you please tell us how the registration process for this year's COP 11 works?
01:17 - 03:21
[Nancy Loucas]
Allegedly, the registration process opened up in February of 2025. However, it wasn't made publicly available until the beginning of September with a September 18th deadline. So that right there is a bit dodgy, I guess you would say. Then you go in, you have to create an account, and then to actually be able to fill out the application, you have to provide a whole bunch of information. They want a comprehensive curriculum vitae or resume if you're in the United States. They want a letter of intent. They want copies of your passport. They want a photo. You know, they make it very difficult for the average person civil society, proper civil society, to actually apply to register and apply to attend. And that could very well be on intent. You know, they probably figure if we make this hard enough, then people aren't going to want to bother to do it. Then the other thing that was very interesting with it is, you know, have you had any engagement with a tobacco company? Now, Most consumer advocates have at one point or another spoken to somebody from a tobacco company or from the independent vape industry. And this is an important thing. because the WHO FCTC considers the independent vape industry, which means not a tobacco company, to be considered a tobacco company, kind of like how they consider a tank to be a tobacco product. So under that umbrella, many people would be excluded simply because of engagement with local industry. And that is also probably by intent, and it's completely unfair. Especially when you take into account that Article 5.3 was there to prevent undue influence on government officials from tobacco companies. It was never put there to exclude, it was put to prevent undue influence. However, it seems that FCTC Secretariat is interpreting that to mean no engagement whatsoever.
03:23 - 03:28
[Joanna Junak]
So what are the reasons for excluding consumers from these discussions?
03:29 - 04:20
[Nancy Loucas]
I think if it's by design, it's to exclude consumers from participating because consumers are the ones with the lived experience. Consumers are the ones, even though maybe it's not scientific and they consider it anecdotal, they're the ones that have benefited from novel nicotine products or safer nicotine products. And if they get in there and they start talking about their experiences and they talk about how these products have helped them, it flies in the face of a quit or die mindset. And a lot of these people, that's what they have, especially now that the treaty itself is being interpreted not just about tobacco, but also they're including nicotine in it. So we're talking about people who are prohibitionists. Prohibitionists don't want to hear about any benefits that might possibly happen from a product that they want banned.
04:22 - 04:30
[Joanna Junak]
And what impact could these exclusions have on the quality of health policy decisions made during the Convention?
04:32 - 05:49
[Nancy Loucas]
The problem with excluding people and the mindset behind it is that People who may be on the fence or people who really don't know are going to see a one-sided view of everything, you know, cherry-picked. And if they don't have that engagement with the people who have benefited from using nicotine outside of combustion or unsafe oral tobacco products like they have in Bangladesh and India and Sri Lanka... You know, it's controlling the narrative. By excluding people, you're controlling the narrative. But also by excluding people that are directly impacted by policy decision and policy guidance, you know, you're not getting the full picture. And what happens is if you sit there and you're going to promote bans or severe restrictions... All you're really doing is taking away the control to prevent harm and making more harm because now you're sending it to the illicit market. The illicit market where there's no controls on what's in a product. The illicit market where there's no controls on who can access the product. Look at Australia. Look at the fire bombings. There are over 250 of them now, I think. It's not going to get any better. But... This is the mantra that they're pushing, quit or die. It doesn't work. It never has worked and it never will work.
05:52 - 05:59
[Joanna Junak]
So in this case, how should the registration process be designed to allow all harm reduction groups to take part?
06:01 - 07:53
[Nancy Loucas]
I think the registration for COP 11, FCTC COP 11, should be simple. Your name, Okay, maybe a passport picture or a copy of your passport to verify your identity. Maybe a short paragraph on who you are and why you wish to attend. And that should be it. It shouldn't be something this entire process, like I said, equivalent of applying for a visa for a country that doesn't accept people to come visit, you know. Inclusivity, you know, that's the thing. You go, you know, the World Health Organization, this is the weird thing about the World Health Organization, FCTC, you know, every other organization, you know, the World Health Organization accepts harm reduction for drugs. They accept harm reduction for sexual health. They accept harm reduction, you know, road safety, pregnancy, all these things they accept harm reduction for. But when it comes to tobacco, nah. And it's right there in the treaty, Article 1D. So that's really interesting. And that's another thing we're going to have to watch out for at this COP is how are they going to interpret Article 1D harm reduction because they haven't really spent a lot of time on that. Also, we've got to worry about Article 5.3. What are they using with that? We already know they misinterpret that to exclude people. These are the number one things that we need to worry about is the definition of nicotine, the definition of what is tobacco industry and how to implement or interpret Article 1D and 5.3. It's going to be very interesting. But I was, yes, I was very disappointed looking at that registration. I could have done it. But I was like, why am I doing this? I might as well just give you my firstborn. And I'm not going to do that.
07:55 - 08:15
[Joanna Junak]
Thank you, Nancy. We will be keeping an eye on the situation in November. That's all for today. Tune in next time here on GFN TV or on our podcast. You can also find transcriptions of each episode on the GFN TV website. Thanks for watching or listening. See you next time.