We, the undersigned, are writing to urge you to take bold action to hold national and transnational tobacco corporations -- including their front groups (the "tobacco industry") liable for their abuses. This is a duty of governments under Article 19 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), and an essential step toward curbing the global epidemic of tobacco-related illness and saving millions of lives.

We represent a broad range of expertise on liability, reparations, and the past and ongoing damages caused by the tobacco industry. We are gravely concerned about the health and economic impacts of this deadly industry and its ongoing deception. And we believe the time is ripe to hold this industry liable around the world.

Tobacco products kill 8 million people yearly [1], while almost 150,000 youth become addicted each year [2]. This is staggering and heartbreaking. Every year, 8 million parents, siblings, friends, and loved ones are lost to an entirely preventable epidemic. And every year, the tobacco industry addicts a whole new generation, many of whom will get sick or die in the coming decades.

This has a severe economic impact [3] as well: US$1.85 trillion on the cost of smoking primarily health-related costs, including loss of productivity. This is equivalent to 1.8% of the world’s annual gross domestic product. Almost 40% of these costs occur in the Global South. There are also environmental costs of deforestation and water depletion due to tobacco cultivation and processing in addition to costs of pollution from tobacco smoke, cigarette-induced fires, and cigarette butts. For example [4], around 4.5 trillion cigarette butts made of plastics pollute the environment every year, costing at least $2 billion in ocean pollution annually; tobacco production emits and uses more than 80 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually. People and governments are forced to pay the costs of harms caused by the tobacco industry.

As global leaders, you have the power to stop this deadly industry from destroying lives and harming the planet in service of its profits. And you have the power to rein in this industry’s decades-long tactics to deceive the public -- most recently with its deceptive claims of “harm-reduction” and a “smoke-free future,” even as it continues marketing cigarettes (old and new) to youth. It’s time to find the courage to make tobacco corporations pay for the harms they cause. In truth, we can't afford NOT to.

As experts on liability, reparations, and accountability across the globe, we know that mechanisms to effectively impose liability are a recognized means to curb corporate abuse, and provide justice to those who have been harmed by tobacco corporations. Compensation from claims, either from judicial settlements or awards, or through taxation or other forms of levy, are proven measures to unlock billions of dollars for healthcare or other costs. Effective and dissuasive sanctions are recognized means to rein in corporations and discourage corporate abuse. The WHO FCTC, the global tobacco treaty, explicitly recognizes liability’s potential among its provisions, obligates governments to explore its potential, and emphasizes the need for international and bilateral cooperation. That’s why there’s a growing movement to make this deadly industry pay, using tools available to governments and civil society around the world.

Governments can take action today to hold tobacco corporations liable, both internationally and nationally. We join in solidarity with the thousands of people around the world [5] calling on you to take the following actions:

1. Advance liability measures within the WHO FCTC at its biennial Conferences of the Parties (COPs), in line with the decision on liability adopted at COP10 [6] to include this topic as a recurrent item on subsequent COPs’ provisional agendas.

2. Provide funding to the WHO FCTC Secretariat to:
- Provide technical guidance on implementing Article 19 WHO FCTC, where the right and ability for governments to hold the national and transnational tobacco industry corporations liable is embodied in international law.
- Structure and form better frameworks for international cooperation such as international liability regimes.

3. Implement Article 19 WHO FCTC and advance liability in your country through collaboration with local civil society organizations, academics, and legal experts (among them, the signatories below), including by, among others, advancing taxation measures, imposing corporate regulatory measures including bonds [7] and other financial guarantees, imposing effective and dissuasive sanctions, adopting non-judicial or administrative compensation mechanisms [8], and using the civil liability toolkit to instigate tobacco lawsuits or update litigation rules to enable the same [9] (created by an expert working group and adopted by the WHO FCTC governing body).

2023 marked the 25th anniversary of the Master Settlement Agreement [10], the groundbreaking case in the U.S. that continues to compel the tobacco industry to pay billions of dollars to account for its abuses and deception. We can’t afford to wait 25 more years for other countries to follow suit. Luckily, more and more countries around the world, from Brazil [11] to South Korea [12] to Canada [13], are pursuing liability as a means to address the epidemic of tobacco-related illness. But we need to take bold, creative steps to overcome the challenges and barriers many countries face to making tobacco corporations pay. Now is the time to accelerate this movement, and you, as global leaders, have the power and tools to do so.

We stand ready to share our expertise and support you in taking these bold and necessary actions. In doing so, together with your leadership, we can end the abuses of the tobacco industry, protect the planet, and save millions of people’s lives.

Sincerely,

Sources
1. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tobacco#:~:text=Tobacco kills more than 8,- and middle-income countries
2. https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/smoking-facts/tobacco-use-among-children
3. https://tobacconomics.org/files/research/523/UIC_Economic-Costs-of-Tobacco-Use-Policy-Brief_v1.3.pdf
4. https://exposetobacco.org/wp-content/uploads/Talking_Trash_EN.pdf
5. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/make-big-tobacco-pay/
6. https://storage.googleapis.com/who-fctc-cop10-source/Decisions/fctc-cop-10-13-en.pdf
https://exposetobacco.org/wp-content/uploads/TI_Accountability_Policy_Brief.pdf
https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2024/02/26/tc-2023-058289
https://exposetobacco.org/wp-content/uploads/TI_Accountability_Policy_Brief.pdf
https://exposetobacco.org/resource/tobacco-and-pharma/
7. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/WGTransCorp/Session6/LBI3rdDRAFT.pdf
8. https://ash.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2-Tues_COP-Week-Webinar.pdf
9. https://untobaccocontrol.org/impldb/tobacco-control-toolkit/#/
10. https://truthinitiative.org/who-we-are/our-history/master-settlement-agreement
11. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-tobacco-lawsuit-idUSKCN1SS2DN
12. https://www.reuters.com/article/korea-tobacco-lawsuit-idUKL3N0N61Z520140414
13. http://www.tobaccopreventioncessation.com/Lessons-from-Canada-s-20-year-lawsuits-against-tobacco-companies,128456,0,2.html