Legal advisors and judicial officers from Botswana, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia attended a 3 day legal capacity building workshop in Port Louis, Mauritius from 01 to 03 March 2023, to strengthen tobacco control and reduction of NCD risk factors. Mauritius was proposed to host the multi-country training workshop for legal advisors and judicial officers in government of countries in the East and Southern sub-region of Africa. The selection of Mauritius as the venue of this meeting is because its amended tobacco control law adopted in May 2022 is a legislative best practice in the WHO African Region. The country’s new tobacco control legal framework is comprehensive, and embeds plain packaging, a primer in the Region. The implementation of the law has agreed timelines and is a comparative law implementation best practice that participants will engage with and learn from to support their respective countries.
Dr the Hon K. K. Jagutpal, Mauritius Minister of Health and Wellness, during the opening of the training workshop said, “the 31st of May 2023, which happens to be the World No Tobacco Day will be of significant importance to us as Plain Packaging will be introduced in the Republic of Mauritius as from this day”.
Plain Pacaging will be introduced in the Republic of Mauritius as from 1st June 2023 in order to prohibit the use of logos, colours, brand images and promotional information on tobacco packages. Instead, a standard green brown colour, namely Pantone 448 C, will be applied coupled with the pictorial warnings.
