Qatar Participates in International Meetings on Tobacco Control

International Meetings on Tobacco Control

The State of Qatar participated in the third joint meeting of the elected offices of the 9th session of the Conference of the Parties to the Global Health Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and the second session of the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, in addition to the third meeting of the general committee elected from the meeting of the parties. All these meetings were held in Geneva.

The State of Qatar was represented in the meetings by Dr. Kholoud Al Mutawa, the Head of the Eastern Mediterranean Region Office for the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, and the Head of the Non-Communicable Diseases Department at the Ministry of Public Health.

The State of Qatar ratified the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products through the issuance of Amiri Decree No. 52 of 2018.

The protocol aims at eliminating all forms of illicit trade in tobacco products, often growing across borders, through a package of measures and policies taken by the State of Qatar and the other member states for a global solution to this global problem.

The protocol provides a comprehensive set of tools to address illicit trade in tobacco products and seeks to increase cooperation between government agencies in the country, with the close participation of the Ministry of Public Health, to discuss the implemented national policies and legislation in the country that undermine illicit trade policies.

Illicit trade in tobacco products poses a serious threat to public health because it increases the accessibility and affordability of tobacco products, thus fueling the tobacco epidemic and undermining tobacco control policies in countries. It also causes substantial losses in government revenues, and at the same time contributes to the funding of transnational criminal activities.

(QNA)