NGO PROPOSES TO AMEND ANTI-TOBACCO LAW IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN. November 14. /ARKA/. An Armenian non-governmental
organization, “For The Sake of Education and Culture”, has proposed
to amend the anti-tobacco legislation in Armenia, said lawyer Tatevik
Gharibyan who authored the project.

The NGO studied international anti-tobacco laws of other countries and
elaborated amendments as part of their program entitled “Anti-Tobacco
Laws: For the Sake of Public Health” funded by the Youth Foundation
of Armenia.

The current Armenian anti-tobacco law was passed in 2004 and is very
incomplete, said the head of the NGO Mery Aleksanyan. Many articles
of the law are not applied in reality, she said.

The amendments suggest banning smoking in restaurants, cafes, bars and
other public areas, as well as in enclosed working areas. The project
also calls to ban advertising of tobacco products in the press and
form an authorized body to monitor compliance with anti-tobacco laws.

Apart from this, the authors suggest increasing prices for tobacco
products through tax administration tools.

Along with legislation changes, public awareness of the damage to
health cause by tobacco and respective public campaigns should be
enhanced, Aleksanyan said. -0—

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress