Cancer Council Victoria would like to congratulate Jonathan
Liberman, Director of the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer, on his World No
Tobacco Day 2017 Award from the World Health Organisation (WHO) Western Pacific
Regional Office region for outstanding contribution to tobacco control.
The award coincides with World No Tobacco Day today (Wednesday
31 May), which has the theme ‘Tobacco – a threat to development’.
Jonathan has worked in tobacco control for over 19 years on
a domestic, regional and global level, playing a critical role in the promotion
of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (‘WHO FCTC’) and developing capacity
in low-and middle-income countries.
He is an internationally recognised expert on the use of law
to advance cancer control. He has been involved in a wide range of state and
national laws on smoke free areas, advertising, promotion and sponsorship and
graphic health warnings, and made an invaluable contribution to the development
of Australia’s world-first plain packaging laws, which were introduced in
2012.
The McCabe Centre was established under Jonathan’s
leadership in February 2012. A joint initiative of the Union for International
Cancer Control and Cancer Council Victoria, its mission is to contribute to the
effective use of law for cancer prevention, treatment, supportive care and
research. The McCabe Centre is a WHO FCTC knowledge hub on legal challenges to
implementation of the Convention. Since becoming a knowledge hub, the McCabe
Centre has provided training and capacity-building to over 200 government,
intergovernmental, academic and NGO lawyers and policy experts from over 60 countries
across all six WHO regions and provided technical support to a number of countries.
CEO of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), Dr
Cary Adams, said:
"The UICC and its members are tremendously proud of the
recognition Jonathan has received given his long term commitment to tobacco
control and leadership of the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer."
To find out more about the McCabe Centre’s work, visit their website.