U.N. Seeks Smoking Ban at NYC Headquarters

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U.N. Seeks Smoking Ban at NYC Headquarters
November 13, 2008

News Summary



The United Nations has pressed nations to adopt an international tobacco treaty that includes a ban on indoor smoking, but a smoking ban at the U.N.'s headquarters building in New York has been routinely ignored.
Now, however, the U.N. General Assembly is calling on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to crack down on smokers, Reuters reported Nov. 6.
Indoor smoking is prohibited everywhere else in the city, and the General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution last week to enforce the ban in the U.N. building and bar tobacco sales there.
Still, diplomats could be found puffing away in the U.N. Delegates Lounge last week, and some of them predicted that Ban's efforts to enforce the rule would fail. Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general, also tried to ban smoking in the building, but diplomats and U.N. staff just ignored the "no smoking" signs. On the other hand, a ban was successfully implemented at the U.N. offices in Geneva.