The US and the Global Tobacco Treaty

The U.S. Failure to Ratify the Global Tobacco Treaty

The global tobacco treaty opened for signature on June 16, 2003, and took effect as international law on February 27th, 2005. Once a leader in tobacco control, the United States remains on the sidelines, among a shrinking minority of nations that have yet to ratify the treaty.

The Bush Administration signed the global tobacco treaty nearly five years ago, but never submitted it to the Senate for ratification. In 2005, eleven U.S. Senators urged President Bush to send the treaty to the Senate for consideration. One of those Senators was Barack Obama, now the President of the United States.

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As President Obama begins his first term and takes on foreign and domestic policy decisions, we must ask: Is our government truly committed to public health? Are our government officials accountable to the U.S. public?

The U.S. government's track record on international humanitarian agreements, including the life-saving global tobacco treaty, suggests an arrogant, "rules apply to others, not us" attitude. Other treaties the United States has signed but not ratified include: the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and the International Treaty to Ban Landmines. Click here to read our exposé Cowboy Diplomacy.

We believe it's time for the United States to join the international community, ratify this groundbreaking treaty, and protect future generations.

Click here to urge President Obama to move the U.S. toward ratifying the global tobacco treaty.