The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has put additional pressure on the government to immediately ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), saying that freedom from dangerous tobacco smoke is a basic human right.

Speaking at the National Seminar on Tobacco Control on Wednesday, Komnas HAM commissioner Roichatul Aswidah said that tobacco smoke was a serious threat to human rights as it caused mass deaths across the globe annually.

'€œKomnas HAM sees this problem from a perspective where the government has to provide a healthy environment for its citizens by ratifying the treaty to protect the people from health threats caused by tobacco smoke,'€ Roichatul said on Wednesday.

The treaty that was adopted by the 56th World Health Assembly in 2003, is aimed at promoting public health by monitoring tobacco use, protecting people from tobacco smoke, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising as well as raising taxes on tobacco products.

Indonesia is the only Asian country and, along with Somalia, one of the only two Muslim-majority countries that have not ratified the treaty, due to strong opposition from tobacco industry.

Roichatul also said that not every ministry shared the same views on the treaty, making it even harder to discuss the ratification with members of the House of Representatives.

Data from the Demography Institute of the University of Indonesia shows that cigarette consumption in Indonesia increased from 251 billion cigarettes in 2009 to 302 billion in 2012.

Meanwhile, data from the Health Ministry showed that around 260,000 Indonesians died from tobacco-related diseases last year. About 25,000 of them were not smokers but exposed to the cigarette smoke in their surroundings.

Former Komnas HAM chairman Ifdhal Kasim said that every citizen had the right to life and the government should step up its efforts to protect its people from threats including those from tobacco smoke.

'€œCigarettes kill one person every 10 seconds globally, while half of those deaths occurred in Asia, according to WHO,'€ Ifdhal said.

'€œIf those figures keep on recurring every year, then all of those countries have failed in defending their citizens'€™ right to life,'€ Ifdhal said.

'€œThe government has to immediately ratify the treaty because it has the responsibility to ensure that its citizens have the right to life.'€

The Foreign Ministry'€™s director for human rights and humanitarian affairs, Muhammad Anshor, also shared the same view, saying that cigarettes reduced public access to the highest standards of health.

'€œEspecially in Indonesia, where a lot of children who come from poor families are forced to endure limited budgets for their education and health, simply because their parents are smoking,'€ he said.

According to the Health Ministry'€™s human resources development and empowerment agency head, Untung Suseno Sutarjo, more than 43 million children live with parents who smoke and as such are exposed to cigarette smoke daily at home.

'€œThese children will experience slower lung development and higher possibilities of contracting asthma, which will later hinder their performances at school. This condition will put those children and the nation'€™s future at stake,'€ Untung said.

Popular

Is Indonesia really ready to embrace dual citizenship?

Palm oil plantation-less mills lead to increase deforestation

Prabowo inaugurates construction of Majapahit palace replica