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By External Source
Nov 13 2025 (IPS-Partners)
Violence against women is a human rights emergency in every country.
One in three women worldwide experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime.
Most survivors are harmed by an intimate partner.
Every ten minutes, a woman or girl is killed by a partner or family member.
Around sixty percent of female homicides are committed by partners or relatives.
In 2023, an estimated 612 million women and girls lived within 50 kilometres of conflict, and their risk skyrockets.
Conflict related sexual violence is used strategically, and reports are rising.
The 2025 UNiTE theme calls us to end digital violence against all women and girls.
Studies indicate that between sixteen and fifty eight percent of women and girls face technology facilitated abuse.
Seventy three percent of women journalists report online violence, and one in four receive threats of physical harm.
Online abuse silences voices, distorts public debate, and often spills into offline harm.
Data matters, and the UN is strengthening global measurement of femicide to make every case count.
Many countries have laws, but real protection requires enforcement and survivor centred services.
Prevention works when we change harmful norms, fund services, and hold perpetrators to account.
Wear orange, speak up, and support survivors during the 16 Days of Activism from November 25 to December 10.
Media and audiences can help by using verified data and amplifying frontline voices.
On November 25, 2025, we mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Act now! For rights, for safety, and for equality for all women and girls.
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By Mary Assunta
BANGKOK, Thailand, Nov 13 2025 (IPS)
The 183 Parties to the global health treaty, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will convene in Geneva from 17 – 22 November with one objective – to strengthen their efforts to arrest the No.1 preventable cause of disease and 7 million deaths annually – tobacco use.
Credit: Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control
The WHO FCTC is unique in that it serves to regulate a unique industry that produces and markets a uniquely harmful product.In October, the WHO FCTC Secretariat issued an alert to Parties preparing to head to Geneva for the eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP11) urging them to stay vigilant against the industry’s tactics and misinformation.
According to the Andrew Black, the Acting Head of the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC, “This is not just lobbying; it is a deliberate strategy to try to derail consensus and weaken measures to further the treaty’s implementation.”
Despite government efforts to implement the treaty adopted 20 years ago, the tobacco industry is a lucrative business. It is projected to generate a revenue of more than US$988 billion in 2025. Low- and middle-income countries bear the bulk of the tobacco burden where 80% of the world’s 1.2 billion tobacco users live.
Governments have identified tobacco industry interference as their biggest barrier to implementing tobacco control measures to save lives.
But the tool to address tobacco industry meddling is in governments’ hands. Known as Article 5.3, this obligatory clause in the FCTC, is based on principles of good governance and outlines specific actions governments can take to limit their interactions with the tobacco industry to only when strictly necessary for regulation.
The Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2025, a civil society report card on governments’ implementation of this article, found many governments were lacking in protecting public health. The Index covering 100 countries has exposed how the tobacco industry targeted and persuaded willing senior officials, especially from the non-health sectors, to protect its business and lobby on its behalf.
The newly released Index found the industry has not only become more aggressive in its meddling, but it is also more blatant and lobbied legislators including parliamentarians, ministers and governors who as elected officials can influence policy at the legislature.
Parliamentarians in 14 countries filed pro-industry bills, accepted industry input that resulted in delayed adoption of tobacco control laws or promoted legislation to benefit the industry.
The Index revealed very senior officials had accepted sponsored study trips to tobacco company facilities, the most common facility visited being the Philip Morris International’s research facility in Switzerland.
The tobacco industry has also used its charity to lure public officials and governments to endorse its activities and whitewash its public image. While 32 countries have banned tobacco-related CSR activities, 18 governments from LMICs, such as Bangladesh, Bolivia, El Salvador, Fiji, Gabon, Jamaica and Zambia, collaborated and endorsed industry activities such as tree planting, community programs, assistance to farmers and cigarette butt cleanups.
Evidence shows tax increases on tobacco products is the silver bullet to reduce tobacco use. The Index found more than 60 of 100 countries were persuaded to not to increase tobacco tax, delay tax increases, lower tax rates, or give tax exemptions for certain products.
Over 40 countries resisted the tobacco industry’s misleading narrative on so called harm reduction and have banned e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. However, when a government prevails with stringent legislation, the industry has used the courts to challenge the law. In Mexico for example, when the government banned e-cigarettes in 2023, Philip Morris Mexico obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court to allow it to continue sales of these products.
Industry interference has obstructed tobacco growing countries such as Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia from even having basic bans on cigarette advertising and promotions. Now Big Tobacco is pushing new nicotine products in these countries and others, and creating the next generation of nicotine addicts.
The lack of transparency in governments’ interactions with the industry has provided a breeding ground for interference. The absence of lobby registers and disclosure procedures, and the failure to inform the public about meetings with the industry lets this interference continue.
But there is hope and positive outcome for public health when governments acted without compromise. Botswana, Ethiopia, Finland, Netherlands and Palau all show low levels of interference by protecting their bureaucracy. These countries are a testament to standing up to a powerful industry and arresting interference so they can fulfill their mandate to protect public health.
Dr Mary Assunta is the head of Global Research and Advocacy at the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control
IPS UN Bureau
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