Celebrate World No Tobacco Day on May 31, 2011
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World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is celebrated on May 31st. WNTD is sponsored by the United Nation’s World Health Organization. This year’s theme is to ask countries to ratify (adopt) and implement the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). This year’s theme is about educating people about the benefits of the FCTC. The USA has not yet adopted the FCTC. It needs to go through Congress and then have the President’s signature. Read more about this year’s theme at the WHO’s website. Prior themes included the hazards of smoking and tobacco use.
Download the 2011 WNTD poster in English, Spanish and French. The WHO’s European website (which is in English) is very interactive and geared towards a teen/young adult demographic. WNTD is also on facebook.
The FCTC is the first treaty ever negotiated under the auspices of WHO. The WHO FCTC confers legal obligations on its Parties – that is, on the countries (and the European Union), that ratify it, to take steps on tobacco control. In force since 2005, the FCTC is one of the most rapidly and widely embraced treaties in the history of the United Nations, with more than 170 Parties. An evidence-based treaty, it reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health and provides new legal dimensions for cooperation in tobacco control. World No Tobacco Day 2011 highlights the treaty’s overall importance, the Parties’ obligations under the treaty, and to promote the essential role of the Conference of the Parties (which is the treaty’s governing body) and WHO in supporting countries’ efforts to meet those obligations.