Global tobacco control conferences to take place in November 2023

20 January 2023

News release

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Both governing bodies meetings; the Tenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and the Third session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, will take place in late November 2023, in Panama.

The sessions will be held in Panama City at the Panama Convention Center. The Convention Secretariat is working closely with the government of Panama to organize the conferences.

‘’Panama has led public tobacco control policies, moving steadily towards the eradication of its illicit trade, promoting a culture of risk prevention and healthy lifestyle practices,’’ expressed Luis Francisco Sucre Mejía, Minister of Health of Panama,’’ We are moving towards COP10 and MOP3 with the certainty that the Parties will provide key elements and guidelines to continue advancing forcefully and without setbacks in the implementation of the Framework Convention and the Protocol. We are waiting for you.”

The exact dates are programmed as follows:

the Tenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the WHO FCTC will take place from 20 to 25 November 2023; and
the Third session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP3) to the Protocol will take place from 27 to 30 November 2023.
The conferences are expected to gather around 1500 people among Parties and Observers (States non Parties, non-governmental and international intergovernmental organizations). During the 2 intense weeks, decisions and action steps will be adopted to advance tobacco control across Parties.

Tobacco kills more than 8 million people each year. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.

The WHO FCTC was developed in response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic and is an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health. The WHO FCTC is an international public health treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization, and it was endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2003 and entered into force in February 2005. There are currently 182 Parties to the Convention and it remains one of the most widely embraced United Nations treaties.