Delegates to APACT2010 conference urge Indonesia to sign WHO FCTC..

October 14, 2010 - Delegates at the Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health (APACT) in Sydney denounced Indonesia for being the only Asian country not to have signed the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Hakim Sorimuda Pohan, from the Coalition Against Corruption of the Anti-Tobacco Clause (Kakar) and a delegate to the APACT, said the government should urgently address this matter. He added that it was the first time in the history of the APACT that the conference’s final declaration included a call for a nation to sign the FCTC.

Indonesia - agrees to ratify the WHO FCTC public health treaty...

The APACT Declaration on Indonesia called on Jakarta to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship including for music and sports events. The Declaration on Indonesia also urged foreign musicians and athletes performing in the country to boycott tobacco-sponsored events. (Most Indonesians support moves to ban tobacco advertisements..; Jakarta, Indonesia - more on the Kelly Clarkson tobacco sponsored concert April 29th..; Alicia Keys - Jakarta Concert (July 31st) tobacco companies forced to withdraw sponsorship...)

The declaration was backed by 700 delegates from 41 countries who attended the conference from October 6-9, 2010.

“This is very embarrassing for Indonesia not to have signed the convention, while other Asian countries have already ratified it,” Hakim said. “By failing to sign it, we’re protecting the tobacco industry rather than the health of our own people.”
He warned that if Indonesia did not sign the FCTC soon, it would be “excluded from international society, and we don’t want to be an isolated country.”

Harley Stanton, the APACT president, said, “We are deeply concerned that in failing to accede to the FCTC, Indonesia is creating a public health disaster.

“Indonesia’s tobacco-related death toll is more than 200,000 a year. More than 60 percent of Indonesian men smoke.” He said more and more Indonesian children were also smoking, with a 400 percent increase in smoking among 5 to 9 year olds.

Reference: New Declaration Urges Indonesia to Sign Anti-Tobacco Convention, Anita Rachman, Dessy Sagita & Armando Siahaan, Jakarta Glove. 10/12/2010.

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