Background
The Tobacco Control Initiative (“TCI”) of the Lawyers Collective- Women Right’s Initiative (“LCWRI”) was started in May 2008 under the umbrella of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (“CTFK") in collaboration with its NGO partners- Voluntary Health Association of India (“VHAI”), HRIDAY-SHAN, and Consumer VOICE. The initiative is based on the philosophy that health as a component of right to life is the most significant right as all humans are entitled to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health. The project endeavors to have the COTPA implemented and understood in its letter and spirit.
The TCI supports tobacco control policy implementation by giving the civil society organisations better access to legal expertise. The TCI’s priorities are to help make legal technical assistance an integral part of comprehensive tobacco control programmes and raise awareness of the role of legal services in effective policy change. Technical legal assistance includes legislative drafting, legal research, legal analysis and strategy, training and presentations and other litigation support. Within its resources, the LCWRI works to assist communities with urgent legal needs and to increase the legal resources available to the tobacco control movement.
Law is the cornerstone of social change which can create awareness, strengthen public policies and redress injuries. Therefore, the main aim of the TCI is to use litigation strategies to help combat the spread of the global tobacco epidemic. We firmly believe that law can be effectively used to create awareness, strengthen public policies and redress injuries. Therefore, our main aim is to use litigation strategies to help combat the spread of the global tobacco epidemic.
