보건복지부 영문홈페이지

COP10 to the WHO FCTC held in Panama

- Held offline for the first time in 5 years, the conference focused on sharing tobacco regulation outcomes in each country and exploring ways to enhance international tobacco regulation -

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW, Minister Cho Kyoo-hong) participated in the tenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC),* which was held in Panama City, Panama, from February 5 to 11.

* Effectuated in 2005, the WHO FCTC is the first international convention aimed at reducing tobacco consumption and smoking across the world. Korea ratified the convention in 2005, and 183 countries have signed in as of 2023

The WHO FCTC COP is a biannual international conference where parties review the implementation of the convention in each country and discuss ways to facilitate the implementation of each provision in the FCTC. COP10 is the first COP to be held offline in five years. Korea sent a seven-member delegation led by Jeong Yeon-hee, Director of the Division of Health Promotion at the MOHW, comprised of members from the National Tobacco Control Center and smoking cessation policy experts.

* After the eighth session (September 2018, Switzerland), the ninth session (November 2021) was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tenth session was postponed to February 2024 because of the anti-government protests in the host country

The COP10 opened at 0:00 a.m. on February 6 (Korea Time; February 5, at 10:00 a.m. in local time). The parties shared the status of the implementation of the convention and tobacco regulation outcomes since the ninth session, and discussed key agendas, including the regulation and disclosure of tobacco product ingredients (Articles 9 and 10), tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship (Article 13), and the status of new tobacco products.

The Korean delegation explained the country’s key achievements in tobacco regulation policies, including the enactment of the Act on the Control of Harmful Ingredients in Tobacco, which includes mandatory analysis and disclosure of harmful ingredients in tobacco products (October 2023); wider no-smoking zones around daycare centers, kindergartens, and elementary, middle, and high schools (August 2023)*; and the enactment of the Smoking Prevention Media Guidelines (December 2023).** The delegation also highlighted that Korea’s adult smoking rate hit an all-time low at 17.7% in 2022, thanks to government-wide efforts, including national no-smoking advertisement campaigns and cessation support for smokers.

* Increased the range of no-smoking zones around daycare centers and kindergartens from 10 m to 30 m, and newly introduced 30 m no-smoking zones around elementary, middle, and high schools

** As of 2022, Korea’s adult smoking rate halved from 35.1% in 1998

The delegation also stressed the need for joint efforts to address changes in the tobacco regulation environments, such as the release of new tobacco products and the growth of tobacco advertisement and marketing campaigns on multinational ICT media platforms, and asked for support from the FCTC Secretariat and signatories for reducing the depiction of smoking in the content provided by over-the-top (OTT) streaming services.

Jeong Yeon-hee, Director of the Division of Health Promotion at the MOHW and the leader of the Korean delegation, said, “I hope that the conference will encourage dialogues on tobacco regulation policies around the world,” and “We will share our successful experience in tobacco regulation in detail, and closely examine the discussions at the conference and use the findings to strengthen our smoking cession policies.” ///