A/76/PV.92 General Assembly

The General Assembly will now continue its consideration of agenda item 13, “Improving global road safety”, to hear the remaining speakers in the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on improving global road safety. Before we begin with the list of speakers, I would like to remind members that as set out in resolution 75/308, statements will be limited to three minutes for individual delegations and five minutes for statements made on behalf of a group of States. Members are reminded that the closing segment will take place immediately following the plenary segment in this Hall.

I would like to thank the President for convening this high-level meeting on improving global road safety. The world has been witnessing catastrophic road crashes, as previous speakers have described, and traffic accidents are the main cause of death among children and young people. That is not something we can remain silent about or fail to take action on if we hope to achieve sustainable development and provide all people with an equal opportunity to enjoy all their rights and human potential. To that end, Japan welcomes the goal of reducing the number of road fatalities and injuries by at least 50 per cent by 2030 in the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety, in addition to the adoption of the political declaration of the high-level meeting (resolution 76/294). Japan remains steadfast in its contribution to achieving the goals set forth in the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety through international cooperation and based on Japan’s knowledge and experience. For example, we have broadly provided both hard and soft assistance to countries in Asia and Africa. In terms of hard assistance, we are supporting efforts to improve the functioning of intersections and road- safety equipment. Where soft assistance is concerned, we support capacity-building for relevant officials on road safety, including by providing road-safety education and conducting awareness-raising initiatives. Japan has taken measures to improve road and traffic safety from three standpoints — human-centred initiatives such as capacity-building and awareness- raising; the advancement of safety measures for vehicles; and people-friendly traffic environments. Since 1971, we have formulated basic traffic safety plans that have resulted in a dramatic drop in road fatalities, down to 16 per cent by 2021 as compared to 1970. It is vital to encourage every citizen’s commitment to building a society based on safe and reliable transportation by enhancing awareness-raising and educational activities on traffic safety. In addition, while strengthening preventive measures against road accidents utilizing state-of-the-art safety technologies, including automated driving, Japan has promoted road- safety efforts that put people at their centre, such as building pedestrian-friendly sidewalks around schools and residential communities. Japan will continue to be an active partner in realizing a society free of road traffic accidents, ultimately reducing to close to zero the number of fatalities and serious injuries. We hope that the high- level meetings held yesterday (see A/76/PV.90 and A/76/PV.91) and today here in New York will increase the momentum for galvanizing all stakeholders to take action to improve road safety.

We thank the delegations of Côte d’Ivoire and Russia for co-facilitating the intergovernmental negotiations of the political declaration (resolution 76/294) that we adopted yesterday (see A/76/P.90) at this high-level meeting of the General Assembly on improving global road safety. This meeting, which is taking place during the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, is timely, given that traffic accidents cause about 1.3 million preventable deaths and about 50 million injuries each year. Road safety has the potential to greatly contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), facilitating access to education, health care, food and trade in general, touching on SDGS 4, 3 and 2 respectively. It also connects the various regions of a country, contributing to the creation of economic, social and environmental links between urban, suburban and rural areas, in line with SDG 11. Nicaragua’s Government of Reconciliation and National Unity is concerned about the issue of road safety, particularly at a time when town roads and access routes are no longer a privilege only of certain population sectors and certain areas. Nicaragua is directing its efforts to bringing highways and roads to populations that have been considered remote and highly vulnerable so as to ensure that transportation and access, as well as energy and electricity, benefit everyone. For those reasons, we are paying greater attention to road safety and everything involved in safeguarding the lives of drivers, passengers and pedestrians. Turning to investment, our Government has continued to rapidly expand highway construction throughout our national territory, so that we now have 6,000 kilometres of roadways. Until 2007 we had only about 2,000 kilometres of highways in the entire country, and only 600 kilometres of that were in good condition. Today we are pleased to be able to tell the Assembly that Nicaragua heads the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index’s list of Central American countries with the best roads and is among the five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with the best and safest roads. The global implementation of road-safety plans requires greater political commitment around the world, which would make it possible for us to reach the goal of halving the number of deaths and injuries caused by traffic accidents by 2030. Sustainable financing is also essential to the development of safe road infrastructure that covers all the key areas of road- safety management. It is crucial in that regard to put an end to all the illegal unilateral coercive measures that are currently imposed on countless countries and that force them to divert resources that should be used for sustainable development. Cooperation is essential in this area, and in that regard, we welcome the Global Development Initiative promoted by China and recently announced at the High- Level Dialogue on Global Development held last week on a series of practical measures to further implement pragmatic cooperation in areas such as connectivity and transportation infrastructure, which will also promote road safety and sustainable development. Nicaragua firmly believes that with political will and international cooperation, we can succeed in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development Goals and global road safety, the main goal of this meeting coming to a close today. In conclusion, we appreciate the initiative and leadership of the Russian Federation on this very important issue.

At the outset, we would like to express our regret in connection with the actions of a number of delegations that have politicized the intergovernmental negotiations on resolution 76/294, the final document of this high-level meeting, which has great significance for developing countries, including in the context of implementing the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030. Belarus welcomes multilateral initiatives aimed at practical cooperation in developing transport infrastructure and ensuring road safety. We note the work of the United Nations Road Safety Fund, and we believe in the value of the Global Development Initiative announced by the President of China for successfully tackling road-safety issues. Ensuring road safety in Belarus is a top priority for our governmental authorities, and we have been working on a package of measures for the period from 2019 to 2025. The end goal is to ensure the best possible road traffic conditions, including by reducing the number of traffic-related deaths, in keeping with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.6, on decreasing mortality on the roads. As a result of our efforts, in 2021 our mortality rate fell to 5.6 per cent per 100,000 residents. We have been implementing the concept of sustainable urban planning for mobility through our legislation. We are developing technical regulations for issues related to highway road safety and infrastructure that are harmonized with inter-State traffic-safety standards. We also pay great attention to pre-school and school education on the basics of safe conduct on the roads. We feel compelled to point out that illegitimate restrictive measures and sanctions on Belarus have impeded us in implementing our international commitments with respect to ensuring road safety. In particular, in order to ensure compliance with the rules on work and rest for drivers, the 1970 European Agreement concerning the Work of Crews of Vehicles Engaged in International Road Transport stipulates the use of digital tachographs for vehicles. These are used throughout Belarus’s road transport sector, but owing our European colleagues’ denial of services to Belarus in connection with what the European Union terms the sanctions against my country, Belarusian road transport companies have been unable to use digital tachograph cards. We have repeatedly discussed the futility of sanctions policies, which are clearly already having an impact on global mortality on the roads. We think it is unacceptable to apply any kind of sanctions where road safety is concerned. In conclusion, I want to comment on the remarks made by the representative of Ukraine (see A/76/ PV.91) about Belarus and to say that we have actively supported the efforts to resolve the conflict in south- eastern Ukraine.

As the world grapples with a triple crisis, it may be important to consider this particular crisis, which has been with us for generations. We have heard that the new, Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 re-establishes the ambitious goal of reducing road traffic deaths and injuries significantly. It is reported that the economic costs of crashes total $242 billion. Global road safety is therefore an issue on both the global public health and economic fronts, causing unnecessary burdens and tragic consequences for families, communities and economies. Road-safety policy should be a holistic approach that works to protect all road users, acknowledges that human beings make mistakes and accounts for human vulnerability. It emphasizes that road systems should be built in a way that reduces human error and protects humans from death and severe injury when they make mistakes. We must therefore take cognizance of the safe-systems approach, which reiterates that road safety is a shared responsibility among all stakeholders and that we can take proactive approaches to improve road safety. At all levels of society, individual victims of motor-vehicle crashes and their families, employers and society at large are affected in many ways. The cost of medical care is borne by the individual in the form of insurance payments, and in some cases by the State itself, in the form of deductibles, uncovered costs, uninsured expenses and so on. It is borne by society through high insurance premiums and through the diversion of medical resources away from other needs, such as medical research, disease prevention and control and basis public health needs. There are also significant costs associated with the lost productivity experienced by individuals and others when victims die prematurely or experience a short- or long-term disability. Victims’ dependants suffer immediate economic hardships, as we know, due to the loss of the victims’ income and other contributions, while society is burdened by the necessity of supporting victims or their dependants and by forgone contributions to the nation’s productivity as a whole. Aside from those economic consequences, victims suffer from physical pain, disability and emotional effects that can greatly reduce their quality of life. Nor should we forget that motor-vehicle crashes result in significant delays for other motorists who are inconvenienced by lane closures, police, fire or emergency services activity and the detours and general traffic slowdowns that result from rubbernecking and chain reaction breaking. That imposes significant time penalties on those affected that can be valued based on wage rates and the value people place on their free time. It also results in wasted fuel, increased greenhouse-gas production and pollution as engines idle while drivers are caught in traffic jams and slowdowns. Such economic losses cannot be estimated. They affect drivers’ transportation costs and have a negative impact on nations’ health and economic welfare. Sri Lanka has therefore taken cognizance of the safe-systems approach to include safe road users, vehicles, speeds, roads and post-crash care. A few examples of implementing safe-system principles include creating separate spaces for cars and pedestrians, reducing speeds, engineering roads to facilitate safe driving and introducing safe vehicles that incorporate technology to reduce the frequency and severity of crashes. Sri Lanka is of the view that controlling the flow of traffic, reducing motor-vehicle accidents and maintaining road safety may be as crucial to developing nations as building infrastructure, eliminating pollution and conserving the environment. The main challenge that developing countries face today is a lack of adequate financing to provide the necessary infrastructure. It is estimated that Sri Lanka will require an additional investment of almost 2 billion rupees over the coming decade to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 3.6 target of a 50 per cent reduction in national road crash injuries and fatalities. In conclusion, achieving our collective aspirations for safer roads will require more resources and commitment from every part of society. Together we can mitigate this global crisis in road safety. While there is general recognition of road-traffic injuries and fatalities, little is known about the link between road- traffic injuries and economic growth. The new report, I am told, quantifies how investments in road safety are also investments in human capital. Sri Lanka would like to reaffirm its commitment to improving road- safety issues in order to achieve the targets outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals.

On behalf of the Government of Guatemala, I would like to extend my gratitude to the President for convening this high-level meeting on improving road safety, which enables us to unite our efforts to reduce the enormous social and economic cost of road safety tragedies and move towards the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. I would like to begin by expressing my country’s deep concern about the devastating effects of climate change. Less than a year after we faced tropical storms Eta and Iota, before which we had prioritized the reconstruction of damaged highways, the hurricane season is hitting our country again, resulting in numerous losses in road infrastructure, commercial routes and, especially, the lives and livelihoods of Guatemalan families. That is why we want to highlight the importance of continuing to generate solid, transparent policies, investing in adaptation and resilience to the climate crisis, as well as in the implementation and design of modern transit routes and public awareness campaigns, which can save millions of lives. Guatemala emphasizes that actions related to the development and improvement of sustainable public infrastructure are fundamental to achieving goals in the areas of economic growth, global competitiveness and tourism, and especially to the provision of essential services for the population such as access to health, education, food security and sanitation. As indicated in the 2021 Government report of Guatemala’s President Giammattei Falla, as a result of the work of our Ministry of Communications, Infrastructure and Housing, our road inventory increased by 131.37 kilometres for the year 2020, which represents an increase of 0.73 per cent of the national road network. In addition, through the regional convoys of the social solidarity fund and through inter-institutional agreements with the local Governments of the region, more than 333 km of rural roads have been improved. Guatemala has also taken steady steps towards attracting investment and ensuring legal certainty in the country and has made progress in the implementation of projects with the private sector, which will make it possible to improve, build and maintain roadways and carry out additional works that are necessary to guarantee road safety and socio-environmental mitigation measures. In addition, through our general directorate for road safety and protection and in compliance with its mission to protect and serve, we have established roadway monitoring patrols to prevent traffic events, provide road assistance to users and organize inter-institutional road-safety education. Our goal of improving road safety requires the active participation of society as a whole, working with local communities, civic and Government leaders and other organizations. We value the work and support of charitable organizations, which together with the Government are helping to improve safety in various school zones, and through that to develop scalable models for high-risk communities. Good practices must also continue at the regional level. They include the Ibero-American Road Safety Programme adopted at the twenty-sixth Ibero- American Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Guatemala in 2018, which was born of the will of its member countries to promote safe travel, with a view to reducing injuries, disabilities and deaths caused by traffic accidents. In conclusion, I want to express our deep concern about the loss of life of people in vulnerable situations such as migrants. We reiterate our strong appeal for safeguarding and ensuring full respect for their human rights, regardless of their migratory status, including when in transit. We continue to face multiple challenges and we call for joint efforts to ensure sustainable actions that promote comprehensive development.

My delegation would first like to express its sincere thanks to the President for the tireless efforts that made it possible to hold this important meeting on improving global road safety. We are deeply grateful to the President for involving Côte d’Ivoire in the various stages of the preparations for this timely meeting, including multi-stakeholder panel 1, which my country co-chaired this morning. We also want to thank the Secretary-General and other speakers for their enlightening briefings on the topic we have gathered to discuss (see A/76/PV.90 and A/76/PV.91). According to recent statistics, there are 1.3 million road deaths worldwide and around 50 million injuries every year. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that in 2030, 2.3 million people will die as a result of road accidents. That sad human toll, and those gloomy prospects, tell us everything about the extent of human suffering and trauma caused by traffic accidents, whose socioeconomic cost is very high for all States but particularly developing countries. That is why, among our commitments to curb this problem, we would like to welcome the timely adoption of the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, whose main objective is to reduce the number of deaths and injuries on the roads by 2030 by at least 50 per cent. Côte d’Ivoire also welcomes the consensus that emerged around the political declaration on improving global road safety (resolution 76/294) that we adopted yesterday morning (see A/76/PV.90). We reiterate our support for the text, which among other things calls for strengthening international and regional cooperation, establishing adequate, predictable and sustainable funding and creating a capacity-building mechanism. We particularly welcome the decision to hold a high- level meeting in 2026 here in New York on improving road safety, to take stock of the political declaration’s implementation with a view to identifying solutions that will enable us to reach our goals in this area. In our desire to save lives and avoid the untold suffering linked to traffic accidents, my Government has adopted various measures relating to the establishment of a road-traffic accident information system; the creation of a harmonized road-safety management scheme; the strengthening of vehicle inspection services; and the establishment of a national road-safety commission and a strategic plan for the period from 2021 to 2025, which is specifically aimed at improving the safety of the public transport of people and goods as well as of care for accident victims. Following an awareness-raising campaign, on 7 September 2021 we launched a video-based verbalization system connected to the intelligent transport system that makes it possible to notify motorists of violations by text message. Lastly, my country has set up a road maintenance fund intended to finance services relating to studies and periodic road-network maintenance work. In conclusion, Côte d’Ivoire calls for ramping up international cooperation in the area of road safety, including through the sharing of good practices, capacity-building and financial support for States, especially developing countries. We fully support the efforts made in this regard by the various stakeholders, in particular WHO, the Special Envoy of the Secretary- General for Road Safety and the United Nations Road Safety Fund.

I thank the President for organizing this important high-level meeting and congratulate him and all Member States on the unanimous adoption of the political declaration on improving global road safety (resolution 76/294), which provides us with an ambitious road map for achieving global road safety for all. We are living in a turbulent time marked by multiple crises. However, we should not allow our attention to be diverted from the global menace of road accidents. Every year, 1.3 million lives are lost on the road. That is more than 3,600 a day. Road accidents not only affect people’s lives, but they cost nations between 3 and 5 per cent of their annual gross domestic product. And the emotional and psychological traumas attached to each accident are simply immeasurable. We must devote more resources and energy to reversing that situation. With a fast-growing economy and expanding road connectivity in Bangladesh, the road-safety issue is now at the top of our agenda, and we have taken some important initiatives in recent years to address it. They include enacting a road transport act in 2018, awareness-raising campaigns, building the capacity of law-enforcement agencies and launching South Asia’s first-ever dedicated road-safety project. The Bangladeshi non-governmental organization BRAC is also partnering with the World Bank to promote safety for women in public transport systems and conduct training and skill-building for drivers, including women. We have made significant progress on policy fronts in the three ministerial conferences in combating the man-made epidemic of road accidents, and it is now high time to translate our shared commitments into concrete action. I would like to highlight a few specific points in that regard. First, awareness-raising is central to tackling the menace of road accidents. We cannot make progress on road safety without making people understand the consequences of unsafe roads. It is therefore imperative to adopt integrated communication and advocacy strategies to bring about transformative changes in road-user behaviour on a massive scale. We should enhance our focus on correcting harmful driving practices such as speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol and others. Secondly, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development envisages safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all. To achieve that ambitious target, we need to ensure a whole-of- society approach at every level of our efforts by getting Governments, civil society, the private sector and all other relevant stakeholders on board. Women, young people, children, persons with disabilities and older people are disproportionately affected by road accidents. We must therefore mainstream their voices into any policy decisions, especially if we are to ensure real changes on the ground. Thirdly, road safety is not just a transportation challenge. It is a public health crisis, too. We therefore urgently need enhanced investment in public health concerns. For example, correcting vision impairments can reduce accidents by as much as 22 per cent in certain low-income settings. Keeping that in mind, in 2021, along with Antigua and Barbuda and Ireland, Bangladesh facilitated the adoption of the first-ever United Nations resolution on vision care (resolution 75/310), whose implementation could make a significant contribution to reducing road accidents. Fourthly, technology transfer and capacity-building in developing and least developed countries is urgent for improving global road safety. They need targeted support for building sustainable and safe transportation ecosystems. We emphasize enhanced North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation in that regard, as well as public-private collaboration, as the political declaration envisages. Fifthly, we reiterate the importance of adequate, predictable, sustainable and timely international financing for safe and sustainable transport systems for all. We encourage the international financial institutions, multilateral development banks, regional development banks and philanthropic organizations to step up their efforts and ensure enhanced investment in safe transportation systems. The United Nations Road Safety Fund can play a catalytic role in that regard. Finally, progress on road safety is possible in every country with strong political will, enhanced collaboration and evidence-driven solutions. We must not forget that most road accidents are avoidable. All of these efforts can have an extraordinarily positive impact on our ability to regain the ground that has been lost in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, including on poverty eradication, education, climate change and sustainable cities. As we embark on the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021- 2030, let us join hands to achieve the United Nations goal of halving traffic deaths by 2030.

At the outset, I would like to commend the President for his exceptional leadership in steering the work of the General Assembly on the very important subject of improving global road safety. Zimbabwe is one of the many countries that is struggling to meet its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of halving the number of deaths and injuries from road-traffic accidents by the year 2030. The road- safety situation is indeed more acute in developing countries, and the reasons for that are manifold. While our counterparts from the developed world have fared comparatively well in adopting sustainable measures to reduce the number of global deaths and injuries from road-traffic accidents, we in developing countries remain entangled in the legacies and inequities of the past. Furthermore, the impact of climate change is becoming more evident, with a growing incidence of cyclones and floods, which have extensively damaged our transport infrastructure and routes. While climate-change adaptation, mitigation and resilience-building have been mainstreamed into Zimbabwe’s national policies, they remain a challenge that needs joint remedial action with the international community. Zimbabwe has adopted a national blueprint under which we envisage that by 2025, we should have achieved a high-quality and efficient public transport service leveraged by a safer, efficient, affordable, accessible and smart multimodal transportation system covering both urban and rural areas. We consider roads a key economic enabler in the attainment of our Vision 2030 of an empowered upper-middle-income society. This high-level meeting therefore comes at a time when we have undertaken a road-safety performance review, on which we issued a report in January. The review assessed progress in the implementation of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011- 2020 and made recommendations on how Government can strengthen road-safety management for the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030. According to the report, in Zimbabwe a traffic crash occurs every 15 minutes. There are more than 35,000 crashes annually, with an average of at least five people killed every day. More than 1,800 people die and more than 10,000 are injured every year. As we implement the recommendations of the performance review around the main pillars of road- safety management, we are working on our national road-safety management system by updating the regulatory frameworks to include international and regional recommendations and by strengthening enforcement and awareness-raising. The Government of Zimbabwe has also embarked on major road refurbishment and bridge construction under an emergency road rehabilitation programme. Despite our leadership’s robust engagement and re-engagement efforts, the illegal unilateral coercive measures imposed by some Western countries remain an albatross on our efforts to achieve the road-safety targets we have set. We appeal to the international community to call on the countries that have imposed sanctions on us to lift them unconditionally, as they are hurting ordinary people and frustrating our efforts to meet not only the global road safety targets but also the broader SDGs. In conclusion, we welcome the consensus adoption of the political declaration on improving global road safety (resolution 76/294) and hope that it will give impetus to the attainment of the targets for sustainable global road safety. I would also like to reiterate Zimbabwe’s commitment to the successful implementation of the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030.

Colombia reiterates its unwavering commitment to global road safety and to meeting Sustainable Development Goal targets 3.6 and 11.2. Likewise, my country remains committed to the guidelines defined in the Global Plan for the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 and to the commitments made in the Stockholm Declaration, announced at the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. To fulfil its commitments, the Government of Colombia has adopted a national road-safety plan for the period from 2022 to 2031, a road map that concretizes public policy proposals for addressing road safety in our country over the next 10 years. The plan is based on five fundamental points for the improvement of global road safety. The first is innovation in public management, with a view to promoting agreements on road safety and taking a multi-stakeholder approach. The second is the implementation of the safe-system approach, which entails zero tolerance for loss of life on the roads. The third point centres on the recognition of shared responsibility as a basic principle in generating social agreements among those involved. Fourth is the recognition of the specificities of the territory within a comprehensive public road-safety policy. Lastly, the fifth point centres on monitoring the country’s road- safety progress. We have set ambitious objectives and clear goals for ourselves, including halving the number of deaths and injuries caused by road accidents by 2030. And in line with the Secretary-General’s statement yesterday (see A/76/PV.90), our plan promotes the adoption of the safe-system approach with a special emphasis on women, young people, children, the elderly and people with disabilities. The theme of this meeting is “The 2030 horizon for road safety: securing a decade of action and delivery”. For my country, finding the horizon means that each and every one of us should take an active role in addressing the gaps and challenges. Colombia therefore reiterates its commitment to road safety and invites all Member States to continue to promote joint cooperation, which is so important to making progress in the fulfilment of the shared objective and moral imperative that is road safety, as the Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization said yesterday (see A/76/PV.90).

At the outset, my delegation would like to welcome the President’s convening of this meeting to address a public health issue that is so important to the peoples of the world. Road safety is one of the issues where the disparities between developed and developing countries are clearly evident. Safe road infrastructure in many developing countries is still limited, and we believe it should be a priority for all. We must improve our transport systems and road infrastructure, strengthen our legislation and create greater awareness in society if we are to reduce the number of accident fatalities. We should also recognize that people in vulnerable socioeconomic situations are disproportionately exposed to road risks and accidents. Eradicating poverty therefore continues to be indispensable to the fulfilment of all the Sustainable Development Goals, including those related to road safety. I would now like to share with the Assembly Bolivia’s experience, which has evolved over the past decade through a profound transformational process driven by social movements, and which has resulted in a redistribution of wealth and in changes to the institutional structures of the State. In the past 15 years, we have built eight times as many roads as during the previous 180 years. That massive deployment of infrastructure has contributed significantly to our country’s integration and productive development, especially in rural areas. However, road-safety challenges also increased. But while the rate of traffic fatalities did increase in the wake of our recent economic expansion, that figure has dropped by 20 per cent in recent years, and is largely attributable to the implementation of a national road- safety plan based on the recommendations established in the Global Plan for the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, agreed on in this forum. Today, Bolivia is maintaining and expanding the policies that have proved effective, including compulsory insurance for the care of victims of traffic accidents, continued improvement of its road network, and the expansion of multimodal and alternative transportation systems, such as the iconic and expanding cable-car mass-transit network in the city of La Paz. And with a view to strengthening road safety and contributing to the reduction of pollutants in the interests of Mother Earth, my country has taken its first steps on a path towards electromobility, with the industrialization of lithium and the installation of the first public electric charging stations in the country. With a view to harmonizing our communication, integration and road safety, the Plurinational State of Bolivia welcomes the adoption of the political declaration of the high-level meeting on improving global road safety (resolution 76/294) by consensus and reaffirms its commitment to the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety.

I now give the floor to the observer of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

On behalf of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Global Road Safety Partnership, an IFRC-hosted programme, we thank the President for convening this meeting and for giving us an opportunity to contribute. In 1998, the IFRC, whose mandate it is to prevent and alleviate human suffering in all its forms, first drew the world’s attention to the scale of trauma caused by road crash deaths and injuries in its world disasters report. The report provided a sobering warning that if more was not done, the number of people killed and injured on the world’s roads would continue to rise. That warning has proved true. Despite all the achievements of the past two decades, road deaths and serious injuries have increased, and a disproportionate percentage of those suffering death and injury from road crashes are the young and the most vulnerable. In that regard, the political declaration on improving global road safety (resolution 76/294) could not have come at a better time. We welcome its adoption, and we stand ready to support countries with dedicated technical assistance, as the Assembly has requested of us. The Global Road Safety Partnership has served for over 20 years as the foremost platform for establishing and supporting multisectoral road-safety partnerships. We support the strengthening of road policing capacity, the implementation of good-practice road-safety interventions and advocacy. We strongly endorse the Global Plan for the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 and its recommendations. Today we would like to highlight three recommendations for accelerating its implementation. First, we need to improve serious crash investigation and data quality, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Those tasked with improving road safety rely on estimates to measure progress in reducing crash deaths and serious injuries. To understand the true costs, develop comprehensive strategies and reduce these crashes and monitor progress we need fatal and serious injury collisions to be investigated and reported. Secondly, we need to enact and enforce better legislation. Comprehensive road-safety legislation focusing on the prevention of alcohol-impaired driving and excessive speeds, and on improving the use of seat belts, child restraints and motorcycle helmets, is an essential component of the safe-system approach. We are ready to support Member States in the development of road-safety laws that have been proven to improve road safety and save lives when enforced. Thirdly, we need to improve road policing. When laws are effectively enforced, they reduce unsafe behaviours and have the potential to save millions of lives. Many countries lack dedicated police agencies trained and equipped to improve road safety. The Global Road Safety Partnership currently offers comprehensive programmes for strengthening road policing capacity that provide police with the skills needed to make the world’s roads safer. In addition to the IFRC-hosted Global Road Safety Partnership, our 192 national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies remain committed partners as auxiliaries to Governments in advocating for strong road-safety laws and strengthening capacity. Together we stand ready to support meaningful action to reduce the enormous burden that preventable road trauma inflicts on the people of the world.

I now give the floor to the observer of the Sovereign Order of Malta.

First and foremost, I would like to thank the President for convening this high-level meeting on improving global road safety. The Sovereign Order of Malta, with its 900 years of service to humankind, has a long tradition of serving the needs of travellers. Today we provide ambulance and associated first aid and critical-care services in 33 countries. Working directly with our emergency relief agency, Malteser International, we tackle road-safety accidents each and every day. We send first responders to accident sites, providing care, comfort and assistance all the way to hospitals and clinics. Alongside our partner organizations in the Alliance of the Orders of Saint John, particularly the venerable Order of Saint John and its world-respected Saint John Ambulance service and the German Johanniterorden, we aim to aid those with the most urgent medical needs across the globe through ambulance services. Collectively, we record that in a majority of occasions when ambulances are called to a scene, the setting is most often the site of a road-traffic accident. Some estimates indicate that 200,000 people die each year in situations where their lives could have been saved if somebody close to them had known first aid. We hear that 1.35 million people are killed every year in road-traffic accident collisions. It is a leading cause of death for children and young adults between the ages of five and 29. We know that the actual numbers are probably much higher than that. In the past few days we have heard a thorough and comprehensive review of the global efforts to improve road safety and develop and improve measures designed to reach Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.6. According to the World Health Organization, 50 per cent of road-traffic fatalities happen only a few minutes after an accident occurs, sometimes well before emergency services arrive. Considering this sobering reality once more, we strongly recommend that all Member States adopt a requirement for CPR and first-aid training for all learner drivers working to obtain their driving and motor-vehicle licences. We commend the work being done by Saint John Ambulance Australia, which is promoting first-aid training in the Australian national road-safety strategy, an initiative closely aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Australia reckons that road-traffic accidents, in addition to costing lives, also represent an AUD30 billion cost per year to the nation. Achieving SDG target 3.6 must include driver and bystander first aid as part of the solution, and the Saint John initiative is easily adaptable to other countries as well as cost- effective. Having said all that, it is beyond disappointing as well as a matter of deep concern to us and to others that in the final draft of resolution 76/294, the few paragraphs that mentioned the requirement of first-aid knowledge or certification upon obtaining a driver’s licence were eliminated. It was our initial hope that the new resolution would have produced a larger body of text to strengthen this critical element, but to our dismay, it seems to have been totally ignored. As a voice for first responders, we deplore that omission and urge the international community to re-evaluate domestic mandates on preventive measures to ensure road safety. Ambulance services around the world are often staffed by volunteers. They provide an essential service in ensuring the safety of those who use our roads and our highways. They work selflessly and with total dedication. Is it not time that Governments played a more direct role in requiring their citizens to be familiar with simple first-aid measures that can and will save lives? Compassion coupled with informed action can make good Samaritans of all of us, the State as well as the citizen.

We have heard the last speaker for this plenary segment. Members are requested to remain seated for the closing segment. In accordance with resolution 75/308, we will now hear a presentation of summaries of the three multi-stakeholder thematic panel discussions. Before we proceed further, in my letter circulated 29 June it is proposed that Dr. Etienne Krug, Director of the Department of Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization, present the summary of the multi-stakeholder panels 1, 2 and 3 at the closing segment. May I take it that the General Assembly wishes to decide that Dr. Etienne Krug, Director of the Department of Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization, will present the summary of the multi-stakeholder panels 1, 2 and 3 at the closing segment?

I now give the floor to Dr. Etienne Krug, Director of the Department of Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization, to present the summary of the multi-stakeholder panels 1, 2 and 3.

As we near the end of this first-ever high-level meeting of the General Assembly on road safety, I want to recognize and thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership throughout the whole process, and all of the speakers and participants who have made this meeting a reality. In the plenary discussions as well as in the panel discussions, we have heard very clearly that our current transportation systems are unsafe and unsustainable. We have also heard many suggestions about what needs to be done to change that, and concrete examples of what is already happening today in many countries and cities around the world with regard to leadership, financing, prevention programmes and the strengthening of trauma care systems. Indeed, a lot is happening. We have also heard many members make commitments to implementing more of the solutions that we know work. We have heard non-governmental organizations and the private sector express how keen they are to contribute more to the efforts of the global, national and local communities. I was here in this room in 2004 when the General Assembly held its first-ever debate on road safety (see A/58/PV.84). It was spurred by the first world report on road traffic injury prevention, co-produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, and led to the declaration of the WHO as the lead agency in the United Nations system and the creation of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration as a coordination mechanism for international activities. Since that first debate in 2004, a lot has happened. We have met every two years in this Hall. The debates have led to three ministerial conferences, to the adoption of two targets in the Sustainable Development Goals, to the declaration of a first-ever Decade of Action for Road Safety and more recently to a Second Decade of Action, and finally to the first-ever high-level meeting on road safety. We would not have dreamt about such achievements 18 years ago when we first met here. But while they are important, they have not led to the reductions in road deaths that we were hoping for. They did lead to a plateau in road deaths, which is in a way an achievement, since the numbers of cars, drivers and roads dramatically increased over that time, as we have heard. However, they did not lead to the decrease we were hoping for. If we are to achieve that, we have to change. We have to do things better and with more intensity. That is what we have heard throughout the past two days. I would ask all Member States, when they go home, to talk with their Heads of State and Government. We have heard it here  — we need top-level political leadership for this issue. I ask Member States to inform their Heads of State and Government of the proceedings of these meetings, the discussions we have had and the key role they must play if we are to achieve this reduction. I would ask that they also talk to their Ministers of Finance. We have heard the importance of getting the right funding. While the funding must come in part from the international community, an even larger part needs to come from national budgets. I ask members to tell their Ministers of Finance how cost-effective the interventions for road safety really are. They have been ranked among the most cost-effective public health interventions there are among everything that can be done for public health. As such, they are worth the investment. They work and they are cost-effective. When members go home, I ask that they please take another look at the declaration the Assembly adopted (resolution 76/294) yesterday morning (see A/76/ PV.90). It is very clear about what needs to happen. It calls for all countries to have a target for 2030. That is logical. We have all agreed to a 50 per cent reduction target in road deaths, but it will be achieved only if every country can identify what its contribution will be. Once members have set their targets, I ask that they make sure to develop a plan on how to achieve them, with clear roles for every sector in society. Again, that is something we have heard repeatedly over the past two days. I also ask that they ensure that once the target, plan and roles are set, the right funding will be allocated to implement the plan. If we do that, we will be able to make the difference we want. I also ask members to look at other paragraphs in the declaration. One of them calls for the appointment of focal persons to work with the World Health Organization. Our ambition is to create a network of focal persons from each country. My hope is that they will be the heads of Member States’ road-safety agencies and that we can bring them together on an annual basis to share information and best practices and make sure that the declaration adopted will be put into practice. We stand ready to help and build capacity so that this happens. In conclusion, we have heard very clearly what needs to happen. There is no doubt about that any more. And we know it is possible. We have heard from some countries that dramatic reductions have been achieved over the past decade. Now we want more countries to do the same, and we certainly stand ready to collaborate with them to make that a reality. Let us work together to make this meeting the turning point it has to be.

This concludes a successful high- level meeting on this very important topic. As our discussions have made abundantly clear, road safety is a complex and cross-cutting issue that is interlinked with all the Sustainable Development Goals. We have made much progress in the past two days. We adopted a milestone political declaration (resolution 76/294) by which we collectively reaffirm the importance of improving global road safety and which highlights our shared responsibility at all levels while acknowledging the primary responsibility of Governments. We committed to implementing the Global Plan for the Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 with the aim of reducing road-traffic deaths by at least 50 per cent by 2030. We resolved to strengthen political will and promote cooperation with all stakeholders as we strive to implement a comprehensive approach to road safety, one based on science, evidence and best practices and that addresses the risk factors that undermine road safety. We vowed to integrate a gender perspective into all policies and actions relevant to road-safety plans, and we have committed to ensuring adequate and predictable financing to sustain our efforts in the long term. I commend Member States and stakeholders, including the representatives from civil society, academia, the private sector and the United Nations system for their active involvement. I am encouraged by their inspiring and powerful words and innovative and comprehensive suggestions. Member States have highlighted the importance of transport connectivity and the need for a whole-of-Government approach with the engagement of all stakeholders. A number of countries have also set an example by developing plans and establishing national targets. I hope many others will follow suit. While the Global Plan presents a broad set of actions that need to be taken, its implementation should be contextualized to meet the needs of local communities. They should prioritize the safety of especially vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and bicyclists. At one of the panel discussions, we heard from a mother who lost her son when he was killed along with 22 other passengers in a deadly crash caused by poor road infrastructure and human misbehaviour. On road safety, she reminded us that we are all on the same bus. I heard the strong call that we can never compromise on road-safety standards, whether for economic benefit or any other reason. I heard the call from our youth that we should not merely make decisions for young people but with young people. Those voices are what we must bring into our political processes. Those initiatives will help us make great progress in upgrading our transport infrastructure in a manner that benefits our communities and keeps them safer. Before closing, I would like to thank my Chef de Cabinet, Mr. Nagaraj Kakanur, for his hard work in leading the informal consultations, which ensured that we have an ambitious political declaration that has been agreed to by one and all. I also want to thank the entire World Health Organization and the team of the Office of the President of the General Assembly for their efforts in making this high-level meeting on road safety a resounding success. We will reconvene here in 2026 at a high-level meeting on improving global road safety, to undertake a comprehensive mid-term review of the implementation of the new political declaration and Global Plan. In the meantime, let us get to work to make our roads, our cities and our communities safer. Together we can achieve those goals. Together, we can ensure road safety. I declare closed the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on improving global road safety. May I take it that it is the wish of the General Assembly to conclude its consideration of agenda item 13?