Background The United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution A/RES/74/299/2020 encourages Member States to consider becoming Contracting Parties (CP) to the following road safety-related UN legal instruments: 1949 Convention on Road Traffic, 1968 Convention on Road Traffic, 1968 Convention on Road Signs and Signals, 1958 and 1998 Agreements on Technical Vehicle Regulations, 1997 Agreement on Periodic Technical Inspection of Vehicles, 1957 Agreement on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and, beyond accession, applying, implementing and promoting their provisions. The World Health Organization (WHO) proposes that by 2030 all countries should accede to one or more of the core road safety-related UN legal instruments.

Objective Identify the countries in the WHO Regions that are CP to the UN legal instruments on road safety.

Policy Analisys Based on the UN Treaty Collection records and on the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) reference documents, in the WHO Regions, the countries that are CP in relation to the number of UN legal instruments are: Africa: 31 / 7; Americas: 20 / 4; Europe: 53 / 7; Eastern Mediterranean: 16 / 7; South-East Asia: 5 / 5; Western Pacific: 14 / 5. UN Member States can become a CP to the UN legal instrument on road safety by ratification or accession.

Policy Implications To become a Contracting Party, a country must assess the impact of the decision on its constitutional framework and consider the manifestation of the National Parliament or the Supreme Constitutional Court when examining the legal instrument and provide formal confirmation that it does not contradict its Constitution.

Conclusions The principles universally established in the UN legal instruments on road safety are the most powerful enablers of reliable safe mobility policies. Accession to the UN legal instruments on road safety is necessary to facilitate international road traffic and to increase road safety. Policy makers, government and civil society should focus their efforts to promote national discussions, with support from the UNECE, as guardian of the UN legal instruments on road safety, UN Regional Commissions, WHO and UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, to increase the number of CP at a global level.