Breathing Life into the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: Smoking Cessation and the Right to Health

Abstract

The harms of smoking are global in scope, and states must act multilaterally to repel this global threat to public health. Embodying this cooperative spirit, the member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) have banded together to challenge tobacco through international law. While successful in its execution, this international effort to control smoking neglects cessation interventions, thereby offering little salvation to those whose health is at greatest risk-those already addicted to tobacco. Addressing these forgotten victims requires a new paradigm for tobacco control: the human right to health.