Geneva
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: jose.capel.ferrer@unece.org - christopher.smith@unece.org
Ref: ECE/TRANS/06/N08
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Information Unit
Palais des Nations,
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Tel.: +41 (0) 22 917 44 44
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 05 05
Email: info.ece@unece.org
Reproduction is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged.
