Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Recently, when the Legislative Chamber was considering a draft law "On restricting the distribution and consumption of alcohol and tobacco products", an article was separately discussed on the prohibition of advertising, promotion and sponsorship of alcohol and tobacco products, devices for tobacco and nicotine.

The opinions of the deputies were divided regarding this article. According to some, the provisions of this article should refer to the Law "On Advertising". Another position is held by the deputies who participated in the development of this bill, in whose opinion the article should contain a detailed description of the prohibitions.

At first glance, it seems that both approaches have their own reasons, and the application of one of them will in no way conceptually affect the purpose of the law. But, if you look from the perspective of the implementation of the country’s international obligations, in particular, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (hereinafter referred to as the Convention), to which we joined in 2012, many questions become clearer.

So, is it possible to apply a reference approach in the article of the draft law under consideration?

According to the current Unified Methodology of Legal and Technical Registration of Draft Normative Legal Acts, “the inclusion in the text of the draft of references to other normative legal acts is allowed only in cases where it is necessary to show the interconnection of legal norms or to avoid repetition”. In view of this, in this article, which prohibits advertising, in order to avoid repeating the rules regarding advertising only, reference can be made to the Law "On Advertising", which is a special law in the field of advertising. In this respect, the deputies who support the reference approach are right.

However, the question arises whether the Law on Advertising can prohibit and cover in detail the promotion of sales and sponsorship of tobacco products as specified in the Convention.

According to Article 13.1 of the Convention, “Parties recognize that a complete ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship will reduce the consumption of tobacco products”. To implement the full prohibition set out in the Articles of the Convention, States Parties must prohibit tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship as defined in Articles 1 (c) and 1 (g) of this Convention. Article 1 (c) defines “advertising and promotion of tobacco sales” as “any type of communication of commercial information, advice or action with the purpose, result or likely result of promoting the sale of a tobacco product or the use of tobacco, directly or indirectly”. Article 1 (g) defines “tobacco sponsorship” as “any kind of contribution to any event, activity or individual with the purpose, result or probable result of promoting the sale of a tobacco product or the use of tobacco, directly or indirectly”.

Current legislation does not prohibit tobacco promotion and sponsorship activities as defined in the Convention. In particular, Article 4 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On Advertising" establishes a ban on advertising of tobacco, tobacco products and alcoholic beverages, but, in general, the provisions of this Law do not sufficiently cover the issues of prohibiting tobacco sales promotion and sponsorship. In addition, a number of questions arise: first, are there any guarantees that the new version of this Law "On Advertising" will comply with the requirements of the Convention; secondly, if a special law on restricting the distribution and use of tobacco products is adopted in a new edition, why cannot it describe in detail the prohibitions based on the requirements of the Convention.

Foreign experience shows, for example, in countries such as Georgia, Russia, Estonia, Moldova, Ukraine, despite the regulation of advertising issues by a separate law "On Advertising", other special laws have been adopted that establish norms on the prohibition of advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products. In Britain, Israel, Turkey, special laws have been adopted aimed at limiting the spread of tobacco, in which important attention is paid to the prohibition of advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco.

Today, it is also impossible not to notice new trends in this area. According to marketers, in countries where there are weak laws and bans on direct advertising, the tobacco industry uses various methods of hidden marketing, the main task of which is to stimulate the spread of tobacco smoking through various means of promotion. For example, hidden advertising for tobacco is widespread on the Internet. The tobacco industry, in turn, uses social media influencers to promote its products. Overall, the research results confirm the harm of hidden tobacco marketing and the trend towards the development of stimulating images on the Internet that strongly influence the behavior of young people.

Taking into account the above, it is advisable to clearly and in detail define in the legislation limiting regulations to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. In view of this, today’s best approach is to establish detailed rules in an article of the draft law based on the requirements of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Doniyor Turaev, Deputy Director of the Institute for Legislative Problems and Parliamentary Studies under the Oliy Majlis