Background and challenges to implementation:In 2017, all but one of 116 parliamentarians voted
to introduce amendments to weaken the tobacco control law in Kyrgyzstan, including mandating smoking areas and other measures contrary to the Framework Convention
on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which Kyrgyzstan has ratified. The law appears to have been drafted by Japan
Tobacco International (JTI), as evidenced by metadata that lists JTI as the
author of the file containing the official law on the Kyrgyz parliamentary website (see Figure 1 below).
The parliamentarian who introduced the bill had been working with JTI since
2012 as part of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project for the Kyrgyz
Society for the Blind and Deaf. An internal source informed us that JTI offered
compensation to the Kyrgyz media not to report this incident.
Intervention or response:Legal and advocacy tactics are being employed to
repeal and replace the law with FCTC compliant measures including a comprehensive
smoke-free law, to educate government officials about the implications of
tobacco industry dealings, and to engage the global public health community to help expose
the industry and advocate for the enactment of FCTC Article 5.3 measures in
the region.
Results and lessons learnt:Despite such overt JTI interference with the
policy-making process in Kyrgyzstan, our analysis found no viable domestic or
international legal avenues to address this conduct. Although there are
international agreements on bribery and corruption, few apply or can be
enforced under these circumstances, resulting in a significant and concerning
regulatory gap.
Conclusions and key recommendations:We
expect that neither these findings nor this conduct are particular to the
region, and therefore significant law reform is required. This includes: implementation
of Article 5.3 measures, particularly in vulnerable countries; enactment and
enforcement of laws on bribery, corruption and lobbying transparency in countries where
the tobacco industry is headquartered; and expanding and strengthening international
agreements to hold industry and governments accountable.
[Figure 1]