Rendez-vous 145
December 6, 2002
This rendez-vous took place during the 2002 national tobacco control conference in San Francisco. I want to thank the press service of the conference and the San Francisco Tobacco Free project that made it possible.
Phillip Karugaba is Spokeperson for TEAN, The Environmental Action Network
Kampala, Uganda
Thank you Phillip for accepting our rendez-vous. May I ask you to introduce yourself?
Phillip Karugaba: I am the spokeperson for TEAN, The Environmental Action Network, a public interest group that was created in 2000 in Kampala. I am an attorney with an independent practice and a law professor at Makerere University in Kampala.
TEAN uses media advocacy, public awareness and litigation to promote a clean and healthy environment.
The first lawsuit we filed is a tribute to international cooperation via internet. We were looking into the possibility to protect the constitutional right to clean air in public places.
Surfing on the web I got in touch with the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, a group based in Eugene, Oregon (www.elaw.org).
They connected me with Dick Daynard and the tobacco products liability project who got me invited to the world conference in Chicago.
There I was stunned to discover that so many people were involved in tobacco control.
I was introduced to the buddy system initiated by the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project: Melinda Moore with Polaris Research and Evaluation in San Francisco became my buddy and… the rest is history!
Q1. How does TEAN operate?
Phillip Karugaba: We are trying to attract the attention of the media, to have them cover tobacco issues. The exchange of information via the net is very important in that context. We have immediate access to the most recent studies and we can share them with the media. I am quite often invited to participate in radio programs although always accompanied by a representative of BAT, the main tobacco company active in Uganda.
They would never have me alone on the air so here I go with my BAT counterpart. BAT is also very interested to be able to convey the message that they have changed, that they care about health issues, that they are socially responsible and genuinely look for solutions while we are not. They would never miss an opportunity to throw mud at us!
They keep an eye on us: the BAT lawyer knew about the trip to San Francisco before I got here.
Q2. How much tobacco regulation is there in Uganda?
Phillip Karugaba: There is a 1965 bill that regulates tobacco… leaves but there is nothing subtantial about controlling the industry. In the context of its conversion into a socially responsible company BAT has abandoned billboard advertising. There is no advertising on TV and no advertising on the government controlled radio station but its audience is not important so the impact of this restriction is limited. Privae radio stations air tobacco ads. To show a commitment to the World No-Tobacco Day the government banned smoking within the Health Department building. One smoke-free building.
In 1988 there was a long debate about the types of health warnings that would be printed on the packs. BAT only accepted a caption that claimed cigarette smoking can be harmful to your health. We discovered BAT letters to the government where they claimed cigarette smoking was not harmful, etc. Then ten years later started a new debate around the possibility of new warnings and in 2002 BAT agreed to the formula: smoking causes diseases.
That same year we filed a lawsuit againt BAT claiming they fail to give consumers full information about the risks of their products and threaten the consumer constitutional right to a healthy life.
BAT's reaction to this lawsuit has been that we were ignoring the new warnings but for us they do not fulfill the legal obligation to inform the consumer.
Q3. What about the lawsuit concerning ETS and smokefree public places?
Philiip Karugaba: We filed it on May 31 2001 since the theme for the World No Tobacco Day that year was about ETS and smokefree public places. We asked the court to declare that ETS in pubic places was a violation of the right -protected by the Constitution- to live in a clean and healthy environment. We are still in court. The case was filed against the Government, the Attorney General and the Environmental Protection Agency. BAT requested to join the defendents but the judge refused. He said to them they did not smoke so they had no interest in the case. During the hearings the Attorney General asked for the case to be dismissed and it was obvious from the arguments he used he had collaborated with BAT lawyers. The judge refused to dismiss the case and that was an important victory as it justified the legl basis of such litigation in th public interest.
During the hearings someone also claimed the suit was an infringement upon his rights to smoke. We discovered he was in fact employed by BAT in their quality control department. The judge decided he had no genuine interest in joining the case.
Then the Government lawyer asked the case to be refered to the Constitutional Court. The judge refused, saying the case must proceed. They have appealed this decision and the cas is supended until the appeal is decided.
As you can imagine this case has provoked a lot of interest and generated a significant media coverage. It has also generated a lot of interest within the judiciary. All the other judges are following the proceedings.
Q4. Can you tell us how you decided to refer to the Constitution to file your case?
Phillip Karugaba: the most important preliminary condition was for us have legal standing. In many countries people could not file such a case because they would have no legal standing to do so. But in Uganda a 1995 law gave the people legal standing to enforce their constitutional rights. We got our first clue about the possibility of such a suit when we learned about a case that had been filed in India on those grounds. We learned about the casae in the state of Kerala thanks to the database maintained by the people in Oregon. Because our legal system -herited from the British rule- is very similar to India we thought this could work also for us. We think this procedure could apply to many other instances. For example we could also claim that advertising for a dangerous product is infringing upon the consumer's rights. We have to be careful in choosing the right cases. Another important point is that we are not asking for damages. So money is not directly an issue although the burden of handling such cases without being paid is heavy.
Q5. How did the people react to the cases? What about the Government and BAT?
Phillip Karugaba: My mother told me recently that while she was in a taxi the cab driver constantly complained about the lawyers who are suing the tobacco industry and want to prevent smokers to smoke. This shows the awareness is growing and people are talking about the issues. From the start the industry has tried to influence me: they have asked old friends of mine to contact me as go between toward a meeting: I have constantly refused and lost a few friends. BAT is a very powerful company in Uganda: they are the second largest taxpayer (the first one is the Shell oil company). When a new BAT general manager arrived in Uganda his first visits were for the Speaker of the Parliament, the Ministry of Finances and the Attorney General. Soon thereafter I had the surprise of a visit by a senior government lawyer to my small law offices. I was stunned because he just had to call me and I would have gone to his office. But here he was, visiting me and basically asking me to drop the case.
Q6. Is there anything else you want to add?
Phillip Karugaba: The tobacco industry remains very powerful with huge investments in the points of sale promotions that more than offset abandoning billboards advertising.
Those promotions are certainly more effective. How to resist huge street concerts, beautiful young women lighting up cigarettes for you, distributing free items with each pack you buy.
There is little organized support outside of TEAN. The Uganda Medical Association supports us but that is because the President is a very dedicated woman who represented Uganda in Geneva at the World Health Organization meetings about the Tobacco Control Framework Convention.
I think maybe the industry is concerned about a possible domino effect of such litigation in other countries.
The internet has been a key to obtain the information we needed, to get the right contacts.
It is at the heart of our story. We don't have to reinvent the sicence, we were able to tap into all the studies immediately available on line, print them and submit them to the judge.
Thank you Phillip for taking the time to be with us.
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