The United Nations General Assembly yesterday passed a resolution (A/64/L.44/Rev.1) to proclaim 2011-2020 a Decade of Action for Road Safety aimed at saving five million lives over the next 10 years.
FIA President Jean Todt said: “With the Decade of Action in place, the FIA and its members are proud of this important milestone achieved together with the FIA Foundation and the Make Roads Safe campaign. We are now ready to work towards saving five million lives by 2020, by promoting safer roads, safer vehicles and safer road users.”
The debate which took place in New York, saw Michelle Yeoh, the Ambassador of the Commission for Global Road Safety, address the Session as part of the official Malaysian delegation, and give an impassioned plea for action. Michelle Yeoh, together with Commission members Michael Schumacher and Lord Robertson, have played a major role in securing today’s landmark achievement.
The UN Resolution specifically notes the efforts of the FIA Foundation for its financial assistance to the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility and praises the advocacy work of the Make Roads Safe campaign.
The resolution requests the UN to prepare a Plan of Action for the Decade and calls upon Member States to implement road safety activities, particularly in the areas of road safety management, road infrastructure, vehicle safety and road user behaviour. They are also invited to set their own national road traffic casualty reduction targets to be achieved by the end of the Decade, in line with the Plan of Action.
A draft Plan for the Decade, which was prepared by WHO with support from members of the UN Road Safety Collaboration, is now open to all stakeholders for comments.
For more information:
UN General Assembly Resolution A/64/L.44/Rev.1 Improving global road safety (final draft pending full list of cosponsors)
http://doc.un.org/DocBox/docbox.nsf/GetAll?OpenAgent&DS=A/64/L.44/Rev.1
Draft Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020
http://www.who.int/roadsafety/Decade_of_action.pdf
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