UN Treaty Targets Internet Tobacco Ads

Officials from 113 countries met in Geneva in early February at the first session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (Convention). The Convention, which came into force a year ago, bans advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products, blamed for millions of early deaths annually. Because of the borderless nature of the medium, controlling cross-border advertising has been a problem identified by Senior WHO officials since the Convention came into force last year:

"The blind spot was identified that there are other forms of advertising coming from nonparty states being beamed into [parties'] Internet communication and sports sponsorship which [may come] from satellite television,"

said Douglas Bettcher, coordinator of the WHO's Framework Tobacco Control Office. Working parties under the Convention will be studying legally binding protocols to address Internet jurisdiction issues raised by cross-border advertising and will report back by mid-2007. For more information on the Convention and on the recent Conference in Geneva, visit: http://www.who.int/tobacco/fctc/cop/en/ Summary by: Katharine McGinnis