The United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) is an informal consultative mechanism whose members are committed to

road safety Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, horse riders, and passengers of on-road ...

efforts and in particular to the implementation of the recommendations of the ''World report on road traffic injury prevention''.

History

Following the dedication of

World Health Day World Health Day is a global health awareness day celebrated every year on 7 April, under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as other related organizations. In 1948, the WHO held the First World Health Assembly. Th ...

in April 2004 to the issue of road safety and the launch of the World report on road traffic injury prevention on that day, the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

(through UN resolution 58/289 ) invited the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

(WHO), working in collaboration with the United Nations regional commissions, to act as the coordinator of global road safety issues. This request was endorsed by the World Health Assembly in May 2004 and resulted in the formulation of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (UNRSC) later in October 2004.

Membership

Currently there are 70 full members of the UNRSC including

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

and associated specialized agencies, governments, foundations and academic institutes, road safety

nongovernmental organizations A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

and private companies.

Activities

The major focus of the

Collaboration Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...

is on

raising awareness Consciousness raising (also called awareness raising) is a form of activism popularized by United States feminists in the late 1960s. It often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group on some cause or ...

of the issue around the world, through events such as the 1st UN Global Road Safety Week in 2007;

World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims takes place on the third Sunday in November every year as the appropriate acknowledgment of victims of road traffic crashes and their families. It was started by the British road crash victim c ...

celebrated on the 3rd Sunday in November every year and the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety as well as by providing technical support to countries and guidelines on

best practice A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to other known alternatives because it often produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means or because it has become a standard way of doing ...

. Members of the UNRSC have published guidance on how to set up and monitor programmes around

helmet A helmet is a form of protective gear worn to protect the head. More specifically, a helmet complements the skull in protecting the human brain. Ceremonial or symbolic helmets (e.g., a policeman's helmet in the United Kingdom) without protect ...

wearing,

drinking and driving Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English) is the act of driving under the influence of alcohol. A small increase in the blood alcohol content increases the relative risk of a motor vehicle crash. In the United States, alcohol is in ...

, speed management, seat-belt and

child restraint A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

usage as well as how to set up and maintain optimal road safety data systems and road safety management systems.

The Decade of Action for Road Safety

The UNRSC was instrumental in supporting the planning for and adoption of the first ever Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011–2020). The Decade was called for by a UN General Assembly resolution in 2010. WHO and the UN regional commissions, with assistance from the UNRSC, developed a global Plan of Action for the Decade as a guiding document to Member States and organizations around the world wishing to contribute to actions to reduce the carnage of road traffic crashes, deaths and injuries. Members of the UNRSC will work towards the goal of the Decade which is to save millions of liveshttps://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/publications/road_traffic/saving_millions_lives_en.pdf by promoting and implementing good practices in five main areas, viz. road safety management, safer roads and mobility, safer vehicles, safer road users and the post-crash response.

References

External links

UN Road Safety Collaboration
{{authority control Road safety Organizations established by the United Nations