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UNECE receives Prince Michael International Road Safety Award

UNECE received the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award, in acknowledgement of its outstanding contribution to improving road safety. The awards were presented at a ceremony in London today.


His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent declared: “The UNECE provides a unique platform for intergovernmental cooperation alongside that of Civil Society. Through the work of the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations a crucially important global regulatory framework has been created to promote consumer protection and road injury prevention. The challenge now is to extend the success of the World Forum by encouraging more UN Member States to apply this framework in support of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the Decade of Action for Road Safety."


Upon receiving the award, UNECE Executive Secretary Christian Friis Bach declared: “It is a great honour and privilege to receive the worlds’ most prestigious road safety award.  This is an extraordinary recognition of UNECE’s central role in the development of international road safety legal instruments and international vehicle regulations that help save thousands of lives every day on the world’s roads.”


Within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3 - Target 3.6), the international community has committed to “halve the number of global deaths from road traffic accidents by 2020”. In view of current and expected trends, this will require accrued efforts from all stakeholders and countries.


“With 3,400 children, women and men killed every day on the roads, there is no time for complacency if we are to deliver on the promise of the SDGs. I very much hope that this award will encourage even more countries to strengthen their legislation on road safety by acceding to the UN agreements and making sure only safe vehicles are authorized on their roads. This has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives”, added Christian Friis Bach.


Over the past decades, under the auspices of UNECE, the United Nations has developed many conventions governing most aspects of road safety. These legal instruments are in place and at the disposal of all countries to help them build safer vehicles and safer roads, with consistent traffic rules and road signs. Europe, where compliance with the UN road safety instruments is the highest, has the lowest mortality rate for 100.000 inhabitants in the world (at 9,3).


Note to editors

UNECE is the custodian of 58 UN conventions and agreements in the field of in-land transport, addressing most aspects of road safety (vehicles and road construction, road signs and signals, etc.). These contain dispositions helping countries to implement legislation addressing all the major causes of crashes.


UNECE hosts the secretariat and supports the activities of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Mr. Jean Todt.


UNECE’s Working Party on Road Traffic Safety (WP.1) is the only permanent body in the United Nations system that focuses on improving road safety. It is the forum where Member States exchange views and experiences on road safety, and discuss amendments to the United Nations legal instruments, such as the Vienna Conventions on Road Traffic and on Roads Signs and Signals of 1968.


UNECE’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) manages three Global Agreements on vehicles, open to all United Nations Member States. The World Forum has developed over 130 international regulations, including those addressing the most important safety issues such as: seat belt anchorages (Reg. 14), safety belts & restraints (Reg. 16), frontal collision Reg. 94, lateral collision Reg. 95, electronic stability control Reg. 13H (GTR 8), pedestrian protection Reg. 127 (GTR 9), and child restraints Reg. 44/129.

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