On March 31, 2008, the United Nations General Assembly approved the first-ever global UN Conference on road safety, in an effort to reduce the rapidly growing death toll on the world’s roads. The full resolution was sponsored by the UN Mission of the Sultanate of Oman and the Russian Federation and backed by many other countries. Several ICEHS Section Members, including Section Chair Joyce Pressley, attended the proceedings at UN headquarters in New York.
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| ICEHS members Bella Dinh-Zarr and David Sleet with ICEHS Chair Joyce Pressley (Center) at UN Headquarters. Photo courtesy of Bella Dinh-Zarr. |
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| APHA President and ICEHS member Linda Degutis with Make Roads Safe Youth Ambassadors. Photo courtesy of Bella Dinh-Zarr. |
The UN Conference, with participation at least at the Ministerial level, will be held in Moscow in late 2009. The Make Roads Safe Campaign for Global Road Safety, composed of members around the world including APHA and the ICEHS Section, has strongly advocated for such a governmental meeting.
APHA President Linda Degutis with Make Roads Safe youth ambassadors |
APHA President and ICEHS Section Member Linda Degutis signed an open letter in support of these UN road safety efforts that was published in newspapers around the world. She was joined by: Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research & Policy Founding Director (and ICEHS Section Member) Susan P. Baker; the longest serving U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta; President of the Indian National Congress Sonia Gandhi; and three Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Costa Rica President Oscar Arias, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Lord Robertson, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety, which first proposed a global Ministerial conference in its Make Roads Safe report of 2006, addressed the UN General Assembly met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the global road safety crisis. He said:
“I am delighted that the UN has today recognised the scale of human suffering and economic loss caused by road traffic deaths and injuries. Now we must ensure that the UN Conference is not just another talking shop, but secures real commitments and takes real action to reverse the tide of global road deaths.”
During the General Assembly session, the UN heard that road deaths are now the number one killer of young people aged 10-24 worldwide. Overall, each year more than1.2 million people are killed and 50 million injured. The latest forecasts show that unless action is taken, more than twenty million lives could be lost from 2000-2015, with a doubling of the annual death rate by 2030.
Advocates will be promoting a strong agenda for action to the 2009 UN Ministerial conference, including:
Bella Dinh-Zarr, Joyce Pressley, and David Sleet at UN Headquarters. |
- Calling on the international community to fund, at minimum, a 10 year, $300 million, action plan to increase road safety capacity in middle and low income countries;
- To ensure that 10% of road infrastructure budgets funded by international donors should be earmarked for safety.
For more information:
Open Letter to the United Nations:
http://www.makeroadssafe.org/downloads/open_letter_to_the_un.pdf
and
http://www.makeroadssafe.org/news/2008/nobel_peace_prize_laureates_urge_un_action_on_road_safety.html
Secretary Mineta Op Ed in Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/30/AR2008033001836.html
Desmond Tutu Op Ed in The Independent (UK):
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/desmond-tutu-millions-are-dying-on-the-worlds-roads-its-time-to-act-802747.html