The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: To assess the FCTC ratification social process in Brasil.

Methods: we developed a Case Study using Qualitative Approach: Participant Observation - Interviews - Transcription - Qualitative Analyses

Results: The FCTC ratification process in Brazil has been a very complex one. We have found that many social actors participated in this process, pro or con the FCTC. Special identified groups were: Tobacco Control NGOs (Civil Society Organization), some syndical, religious and community leaders (mainly related to rural areas of South Brazil and tobacco farmers), some politicians in the Senate, and the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

After a relatively calm passage across the Deputees Chamber, the Convention spent 18 months in the Senate Chamber. The tobacco industry, its allies and some political enemies of the present Brazilian government developed and implemented a strong lobby strategie in order to avoid the ratification. They worked mainly trying to seed fear among the tobacco farmers of South Brazil.

However, a strong combined work of the MOH, social activists, and civil society organizations, obtained - in the last week of the dead date of ratification - an important victory.

The value of this study is to narrate and interpret the various social forces and political cultures playing and struggling pro and against the collective health.