Tobacco - a threat to development in BiH
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Association PROI, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Publication date: 2018-03-01
Tob. Induc. Dis. 2018;16(Suppl 1):A963
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ABSTRACT
Background and challenges to implementation:
Bosnia and Herzegovina - BiH is placed on 8th position on World´s Smokers List and according to the
World Bank, almost half of the adultan smoke and 77, 3% of youth are exposed
to secondhand smoke. BiH is
composed of two political entities, RS and FBiH and in both there are Tobacco
control laws, but they are old, with no ban on smoking and with lots of
legal gaps. Till the end of 2015 there are no registered law amendments or any new
law proposal. There are no CSOs working in this field and there is a lack of general
public awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco.
Intervention or response:
"Smeta Mi"
campaign was initiated in 2016 by the Association PROI with the aim to
ensure protection of human rights. "Smeta Mi" is based on innovative strategies
such as social media and creative ways such as letters from children to their
parents demanding their right to clean air, photo campaign of
support for the new Law, innovative work methodology "Unplugged" used for the first timein BiH.
Results and lessons learnt:
"Smeta Mi" is the most famous public campaign in BiH, reached
3.531.159 persons
particularly members of vulnerable groups, has more than 479 media coverage, 16,663 followers on facebook, 16 campaign
spokespersons and brought together
60 organizations, trained them as tobacco control activists and founded Smoke
Free Partnership.
PROI signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the
Ministry of Health, set up a working group that completed draft of the new
tobacco law harmonized with FCTC and the EU Directive. At the moment the law is in the parliamentary
procedure.
Conclusions and key recommendations:
"Smeta MI" is a successful campaign that can give a
positive example of a low-income country in which one organization raised the
awareness of citizens about tobacco and will stand behind the changes of
legal framework.