Youth and Road Safety

World Youth Assembly for Road Safety

The World Youth Assembly for Road Safety (WYA) was the first global focus on youth and road safety issues for road safety and the most momentus occasion for YOURS; it was the birth for the organization .

Opening the meeting, WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan referred to the first death that resulted from a car crash, in 1896. On that occasion the coroner reportedly remarked that "this should never happen again". However, "today an estimated 1.2 million people lose their lives every year," Dr Chan said:

"Youth has the energy and persuasive power needed to help address what we now know is the biggest killer worldwide of people aged 10-24 years."

At the center of the event was the World Youth Declaration for Road Safety. In the Youth Declaration for Road Safety agreed by delegates to the Assembly, all 400 young people in attendance commited to taking practical measures to improve road safety and call upon other young people to do the same. The delegates pledged to wear seatbelts and motorcycle helmets and to avoid speeding and drink-driving and promote efforts to increase road safet amongst young people globally.

The declaration calls on all young people to "stand up and participate in local and national campaigns and programmes" and urges adults to do more. The declaration also calls for more political will at national and community level to tackle road safety. It urges schools and universities to teach young people about safety, bartenders to serve alcohol responsibly, media to report more widely and more responsibly about the lack of road safety, and celebrities and the entertainment industry not to glamourize speed and to wear seatbelts andh helmets.

The Youth Declaration for Road Safety

A group of youth delegates developed the "Youth Declaration for Road Safety". Although not binding in any way by the world's governments, provides some background on global road traffic injury prevention, a statement of commitment by the youth delegates to do their part to improve road safety, and a set of recommended actions to be taken by various groups: young people, parents and caregivers, educational institutions, communities, governments, NGOs, private companies, the media, and celebrities and the entertainment world.

Download:

English
French
Spanish

Arabic
Russian
Chinese

 

 

The Birth of a Global Movement

YOURS - Youth for Road Safety came as a direct follow-up of the United Nations World Youth Assembly for Road Safety. One of the main wishes of the 400+ World Youth Ambassadors to the assembly was the creation of a global youth-led organization that would lead a global youth movement for road safety. After a full year of planning and preparations after the first UN Global Road Week, under the auspices of the World Health Organization, YOURS was officially launched November 2009 during the opening ceremony of the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Moscow, Russia, and started its activities early 2010.

Since then, thousands of young people have actively engaged in road safety through meaningful participation. Our youth network for road safety continue to raise awareness of youth and road safety issues in their communities, countries and regions. Find out more about what we are doing on a global level to reduce the number of crashes facing young people.