Eleven Asian countries pledge tougher action on tobacco  

Health ministers from 11 countries in the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia region have signed the Dili Declaration, pledging to accelerate “hard-hitting measures” to reduce the use of tobacco in the region.

The declaration, which was signed at the 68th regional committee meeting of the WHO South-East Asia region in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, on 7 September,1 calls on governments of all the 11 member countries for quicker and stricter implementation of WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. This is important to reach WHO’s post-2015 sustainable development goal.