[Index]
UN General Assembly adopts landmark
Resolution on road safety
Geneva, 1 November 2005 - On
26 October 2005, the UN General Assembly
unanimously adopted an important Resolution
aimed at reducing deaths and injuries
from road accidents worldwide.
In the Resolution,
co-sponsored by as many as 83 UN Member
States */,
the General Assembly encourages Member
States to adhere to the UN Conventions
on Road Traffic and on Road Signs and
Signals, in order to ensure a high level
of road safety in their countries, and
also encourages them to strive to reduce
road traffic injuries and mortality in
order to achieve the Millennium Development
Goals.
At the same time it stresses the importance
of the improvement in the international
legal road traffic safety norms and welcomes
specifically in this regard the substantial
package of amendments to the 1968 Conventions
on Road Traffic and on Road Signs and
Signals, which have been elaborated by
the Working Party on Road Traffic Safety
(WP.1) of the UNECE Inland Transport
Committee.
The General Assembly furthermore welcomes
the proposal made by UNECE to hold the
First UN Global Road Safety Week
in 2007 targeted at young road users
including young drivers, and invites
the UN Regional Commissions and the World
Health Organization to organize it jointly.
“This resolution is a great encouragement
for our work”, said José Capel
Ferrer, Director of the Transport Division
at the UNECE. “It recognizes the
important contribution of the UNECE over
many years to improving road safety,
not only through its technical and legal
work, but also through its road safety
campaigns, or Road Safety Weeks, aimed
at raising awareness about this issue”.
The first UN Global Road Safety Week,
which will be held from 23 to 29 April
2007, will serve as a platform for global
and regional, but mainly national and
local, activities to raise awareness
about road safety issues. As proposed
by the UNECE, it will focus on young
road users, including young drivers.
Moreover, the General Assembly invites
Member States to implement the recommendations
of the World report on road traffic injury
prevention, prepared by the WHO and the
World Bank, particularly the setting
up of a national lead agency for road
safety, national plans of action and
measures to address the main risk factors,
namely speeding, alcohol, non-use of
safety belts and child restraints, non-use
of helmets and inappropriate infrastructure.
The General Assembly
also encourages Member States and the
international community to lend financial,
technical and political support to the
UN regional commissions, the World Health
Organization and other relevant UN agencies
for their efforts to improve road safety.
It also invites regional commissions
and other agencies to continue the existing
road safety initiatives and take up new
ones.
Finally, in recognition of road victims
and families, the General Assembly invites
Member States and the international community
to recognize the 3rd Sunday in November
of every year as the World Day of Remembrance
for Road Traffic Victims.
The 1968 Conventions on Road Traffic
and on Road Signs and Signals provide
all Governments with a harmonized technical
and legal basis for their national highway
codes. Based on best national practices,
they contain the legal and technical
rules for safe road traffic, including
the rules that drivers must respect,
e.g. priority rules, inter-distances,
speed, etc. The recent amendments adopted
by the UNECE WP.1 introduce new measures
to improve road safety, including prohibition
of hand-held mobile phone while driving,
and stricter rules for the issuing and
control of driving permits.
The 1971 European Agreements supplementing
these Conventions have also been recently
amended. These European Agreements provide
stricter rules than those of the Conventions
or make obligatory those rules that in
the Conventions have a recommendatory
character. One of the amendments is aimed
at reducing the maximum admissible level
of alcohol in the blood of the driver
from 0.8 to 0.5 g/l. It is expected that
all these amendments will enter into
force in early 2006.
In addition to this technical and legal
work, the UNECE has since 1990 organized
four road safety campaigns, denominated
Road Safety Weeks, aimed at improving
driving behaviour and at raising awareness
of road safety issues. UNECE Road Safety
Weeks have served as a framework for
the launching of simultaneous road safety
campaigns in Member States around a common
theme, a common logo and a common slogan.
Common themes used have been: “Safety
is Life”; “Young Road Users”; “Vulnerable
Road Users”; and “Aggressive
Driving Behaviour”.
The UNECE Road Safety Weeks have proved
useful in many countries, in particular
in countries with economies in transition,
which had little experience with road
traffic and road safety issues. It is
expected that, similarly, the newly decided
First UN Global Road Safety Week will
be useful in reducing road accident victims
in developing countries around the world.
For further information please contact:
José Capel Ferrer, Director,
or
Marie-Noelle Poirier or Christopher Smith,
Transport Division
UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Telephone: +41 (0) 22 917 2400, 917 3259 or 917 3298
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 0039
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]
Website: http://www.unece.org/trans/main/welcwp1.html
__________
* Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Argentina,
Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan,
Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brunei
Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, Chile,
China, Comoros, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus,
Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Egypt,
Fiji, France, Gambia, Germany, Greece,
Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Iceland,
India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic
of), Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica,
Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Luxembourg, Madagascar,
Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, Morocco, Nepal,
New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan,
Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal,
Qatar, Republic of Moldova, Romania,
Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,
Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain,
Sudan, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic,
Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Turkey,
Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland, Viet Nam, Yemen and Zambia.
Ref: ECE/TRANS/05/P02