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Terms of Reference

TERMS OF REFERENCE OF THE INLAND TRANSPORT COMMITTEE (Revised)

E/RES/2022/2

(a) The Inland Transport Committee is a United Nations centre providing a comprehensive platform for consideration of all aspects of inland transport development and cooperation, with special attention to interregional and intraregional regulatory governance through the United Nations transport conventions and other means;

(b) States members of the Economic Commission for Europe participate in the Committee sessions as full members with voting rights. Non-member States have the right to participate as full members in the segments of the Committee session that deal with legal instruments to which they are contracting parties and remain in a consultative capacity in other parts;

(c) The Committee provides a forum for its members and contracting parties for (i) cooperation and consultation based on the exchange of information and experiences, (ii) the analysis of transport trends and economics and transport policy trends and (iii) coordinated action designed to achieve an efficient, coherent, balanced and flexible transport system which is based on principles of market economy, pursues the objectives of safety, environmental protection and energy efficiency in transport and takes into account transport developments and policy of Committee members;

(d) The Committee promotes the harmonization and improvement of technical and operational regulations, standards and recommendations in the various fields of inland transport across its members and contracting parties, particularly in road safety, road vehicles, the transport of dangerous goods, border crossing facilitation, infrastructures and combined transport;

(e) It promotes the facilitation of international road, rail and inland waterway transport, particularly through the simplification and harmonization of administrative border crossing procedures and physical and electronic documentation;

(f) It promotes the coordinated development of infrastructures for road, rail and inland waterway transport as well as for combined transport across its members and contracting parties with a view to achieving coherent international transport connectivity;

(g) The Committee pursues the objective of sustainable transport development by means of promoting both the reduction of the negative impact of transport on the environment and the utilization of environmentally sound modes of transport, including the development of combined transport;

(h) With a view to achieving the above objectives and ensuring the above functions, the Inland Transport Committee elaborates, administers and, where appropriate, revises agreements, conventions and other international legally binding instruments in the various fields of inland transport;

(i) It acts as a centre for supporting new technologies and innovations in inland transport, by providing a platform for digitalization, automated driving and intelligent transport systems;

(j) It develops appropriate methodologies and definitions for the collection, compilation and harmonization of transport statistics for the purposes of comparability and consistency. It also evaluates the need for the collection and coordination of statistics at the international level and reviews ways to improve their collection, presentation and quality;

(k) Upon request, the Committee advises and assists its member countries, particularly those facing major economic changes, through workshops, training and other appropriate means on transport matters of specific interest, in particular in developing sustainable transport systems and infrastructures that are compatible with those of their neighbouring countries;

(l) The Committee undertakes the study of problems at the interface of inland transport with maritime and air transport, within its members and contracting parties;

(m) In line with the Committee Strategy, in carrying out its mandate, the Committee cooperates closely with relevant subsidiary bodies of United Nations regional commissions, regional and international organizations, especially organizations and bodies in the Commission region;

(n) The Bureau of the Committee will be composed of Commission member States. The Committee shall adopt the terms of reference and rules of procedure of its Bureau and may amend these as necessary. The Committee shall adopt the terms of reference and rules of procedure of its subsidiary bodies;

(o) The Committee may establish subsidiary bodies or convene meetings as it deems necessary to assist it in carrying out the above mandate, in line with existing Commission rules.