Lannan, Kate --- "The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: The International Context for Plain Packaging" [2012] ELECD 807; in Voon, Tania; Mitchell, D. Andrew; Liberman, Jonathan; Ayres, Glyn (eds), "Public Health and Plain Packaging of Cigarettes" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Public Health and Plain Packaging of Cigarettes

Editor(s): Voon, Tania; Mitchell, D. Andrew; Liberman, Jonathan; Ayres, Glyn

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857939425

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: The International Context for Plain Packaging

Author(s): Lannan, Kate

Number of pages: 19

Extract:

2. The WHO Framework Convention
on Tobacco Control: the
international context for plain
packaging
Kate Lannan*

I. BACKGROUND

The World Health Organization (`WHO') Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control1 (`FCTC' or `Convention') is a landmark international
instrument marrying public health imperatives with international legal
tools for the first time in the WHO's history. The Convention was adopted
by consensus in May 2003 by the World Health Assembly (`WHA'),2 and
was opened for signature on 16 June 2003. A mere 12 months later, at the
end of the signature period,3 the WHO FCTC had already received 168
signatures.4 The WHO FCTC entered into force on 27 February 2005,
and since then, the number of Parties to the Convention has swelled
from the 40 required for entry into force5 to a current membership of



* The author is the senior legal officer of the WHO FCTC Secretariat and a
staff member of the World Health Organization. The author alone is responsible
for the views expressed in this publication, which do not necessarily represent
the decisions or policies of the Convention Secretariat or of the World Health
Organization.
1 Opened for signature 21 May 2003, 2302 UNTS 166 (entered into force 27

February 2005).
2 Resolution WHA 56.1 (21 May 2003).
3 The WHO FCTC signature period closed on 29 June 2004. WHO FCTC

Article 34.
4 See World Health Organization, `Parties to the WHO Framework Convention

on Tobacco Control' .
5 ...