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Speech by Nasser Moeini, Officer in Charge, UNICEF Jordan, (27 May, 2004)

Your Excellency, Mr. Saeed Darwazeh,  the Minister of Health,
Your Excellency, General Tahseen Shourdum, Director of the Public Security Department,
Dr. Ali Khan, WHO Representative,
Excellencies,

Dear Guests,

Yesterday, we celebrated World No Tobacco Day and there was a clear consensus by participants and decision makers alike that Jordan should be commended for the anti-tobacco legislation it has in place. However, it was also agreed that this legislation is not being effectively implemented.

We can spend hundreds and thousands of Jordanian dinars on anti-smoking campaigns, have stickers on cigarette boxes that say smoking kills, but at the end of the day our campaigns can only be successful if they are supported by the enforcement of anti-tobacco legislation.

Current smoking patterns indicate that it is not only adults that we should worry about, but our children as well: In Jordan, smokers start smoking as early as ten years, and according to the Jordanian youth survey seven out of ten young Jordanians know of peers who smoke. Young Jordanians are aware of the health risks of smoking but this is not reflected in their life styles

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Tobacco is a drug.  Tobacco companies are making up for their losses in the developed world by focusing on the youth of developing countries: Glossy, fruit flavoured cigarettes, trendy bill boards advertising designer clothes affiliated to known cigarette brands, are just  some of the tools being used by these tobacco companies in the region and in the Kingdom to attract our young.

Children , some as young  as nine years are being targeted by tobacco companies in Jordan and are being given cigarettes to try as they come out of the movies, or when attending music concerts, or when they are in public places.

Smoking in Jordan is increasing. Jordan has long recognized that it has a tobacco problem and that  it is impacting the lives of its people, communities and the national economy. According to the Jordan Anti-Smoking Society over JD 400 million is being spent annually on tobacco and related losses in the health sector.

UNICEF is mandated by the Convention on the Rights of the Child to work with its partners to protect children from the illicit use of narcotic drugs and the use of children in the production of such substances. We have to take legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect our children.

It is in this context that UNICEF in Jordan is working with the Ministries of Health and Education in supporting the training of professionals working with young people in schools and those supporting anti-tobacco legislation. We have also produced information and education material to raise the awareness of children in schools not only to the dangers of smoking, but to show them that there are other means of being cool and spending leisure time than smoking cigarettes and the arghileh.

We are here today to adopt the Jordanian Declaration to Combat Smoking. For this Declaration to be effective we need to have young people as signatories and the private sector as major partners. We need to support our campaigns and our messages by having youth as our ambassadors in this anti-tobacco fight, and we need to have the full support of decision makers to enforce these laws with a price tag associated to violations.

In closing, fighting tobacco should be high on the national agenda particularly for youth. We need to establish a mechanism for the enforcement and monitoring of the existing legislation for tobacco use and marketing. The Minister of Health suggested yesterday that a police task force be established and assigned the sole responsibility of fighting tobacco abuse in the country. This task force could work also in coordination with the Ministry of Health. This is just an example of how existing legislation could be effectively implemented.

Thank you.