The Parliament of Guyana passed the Tobacco Control Bill on 27 July and made a big step forward fighting the devastating effects of tobacco and implementing policies in accordance with the WHO FCTC. As Honorable Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, said the bill focuses on saving lives and ensuring that “healthy labour force and productivity is at its highest and no family has to lose a member from a preventative illness.”
Hungary is now officially the 5th Party to implement plain packaging, as an advanced measure under Article 11 of the Convention.
From 20 August 2016 all cigarette packages need to carry pictorial health warnings of 65% of the front and back of packages. The Decree 239/2016 (of 16 August 2016) of the Hungarian Government also requires that new cigarette and roll-your-own tobacco brands that will be introduced on the Hungarian market after 20 August 2016 has to be in a uniform plain packaging, void of brand logos.
The Federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria launched a national tobacco-free campaign that is set to last from June to December 2017. The campaign is an example of the efforts of Nigeria to strengthen implementation of its obligations under Article 12 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), that Nigeria ratified in October 2005.
After several years of preparatory work, on 4 May 2017 the Parliament of Georgia adopted a new tobacco control act, amending the existing tobacco control act dated December 2010. The law introduces a series of advanced measures such as:
New pictorial health warnings covering 75% on both sides of packs must be affixed to all cigarette products of all brands, either domestically made or imported in the Lao People's Democratic Republic starting 1 May 2017.
These rules are based on the “Law on Tobacco Control No. 1067” adopted on 23 May 2016 (http://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/legislation/country/laos/laws).