Kyrgystan joins Convention on Road Traffic
Geneva, 29 September 2006 -- Kyrgyzstan has become the sixty-fourth
Contracting Party to the Convention on Road Traffic.
The Convention on Road Traffic, which was done in Vienna in 1968, regulates
all facets of driving behaviour, such as speed and distance between vehicles,
intersections and obligation to give way. Moreover, it details the technical
conditions for the admission of vehicles to international traffic and provides
models of domestic and international driving permits.
Recent amendments to the Convention, which entered into force earlier
this year, include the prohibition of the use of handheld mobile phones
while driving, the obligation for national legislation to define the content
and conditions for theoretical and practical driving tests and the medical
requirements for receiving a driving permit, and the recognition of the
validity of an international driving permit only if presented with a valid
national driving permit. The object of the latter proposal is to combat
the fraudulent and dangerous sale of international permits over the Internet.
Together with the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, the Convention
on Road Traffic provides Governments with a harmonized legal and technical
basis for their national highway codes and ensures a high level of road
safety in the countries that implement them. Though elaborated and kept
up to date by the UNECE in Geneva, the two Conventions are global in character
with Contracting Parties from all continents.
Last year, in Resolution A/RES/60/5, the United Nations General Assembly
stressed the importance of the improvement of international road safety
norms and welcomed the work of the UNECE Working Party on Road Traffic
Safety (WP.1) in the elaboration of the amendments to these Conventions.
It also encouraged Member States to adhere to those Conventions, in order
to ensure a high level of road safety in their countries.
For further information regarding the international legal instruments
in the field of road traffic and road safety please contact:
José Capel Ferrer, Director, or
Christopher Smith,
UNECE Transport Division
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 2400, 917 3298
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 0039
E-mail: [email protected] - [email protected]
Ref: ECE/TRANS/06/N08