What is the Parliamentary Network for Road Safety of the Americas?
The Parliamentary Network for Road Safety of the Americas is a legislative/parliamentary workspace for the exchange of experiences and information, the promotion of legislative innovation, the adoption of best practices and proposals to homologate legislations and advancing policies to promote road safety in line with recommendations and resolutions issued by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The Network has the potential to support Latin American and Caribbean countries in fulfilling commitments made as part of the of the new Sustainable Development Agenda and the second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030.
It was created as a result of the conjunction of wills and interests of a group of legislators interested and committed to road safety and the efforts of PAHO to promote and strengthen strategies, policies and laws, based on solid evidence, in order to prevent road traffic deaths and severe injuries. The Network seeks to promote the participation of the National Congresses, Legislative Assemblies and Parliaments of Latin America and the Caribbean to foster dialogue to achieve comprehensive and harmonized solutions, including the evaluation of results and accountability.
How to participate
PAHO, through the Office of the Legal Counsel, acts as the Technical Secretariat of this Network.
Parliamentarians interested in registering on the network or receiving more information can send their request to parlasegvialOPS@paho.org
Objectives
Through this platform, the Parliamentary Network for Road Safety of the Americas seeks to cooperate with PAHO/WHO, to:
-
Strengthen national laws, standards, and regulations, to harmonize them in the region, directly linked with the promotion of road safety and the reduction in the exposure to its key risk factors, promoting dialogue with different stakeholders and the participation of all the society.
-
Contribute to reducing exposure to key risk factors (speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol and other drugs) and increase the use of protective equipment (helmets for motorcyclists that meet safety standards, seatbelts, and child restraint systems), as well as the adequate and uniform articulation of the efforts of different national authorities.
-
Promote safe, accessible, and equitable mass public transportation, as well as road infrastructure focused on the safe mobility of pedestrians and cyclists.
-
Create or strengthen surveillance systems to improve data on road traffic injuries, which in turn can provide useful information on groups and areas at higher risk.
-
Strengthen emergency care, including rehabilitation services.
-
Develop or strengthen a motor vehicle inspection system.
-
Promote communication channels and intersectoral and intergovernmental work to achieve the objectives of the new Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, make policy proposals, support the financing of activities, and evaluate the exercise of policies and regulations to verify that their issuance and maintenance is being useful for the purpose of its creation, as well as to promote dialogue and citizen participation.
History of the Parliamentary Network for Road Safety of the Americas
The official formation of the Network took place in 2019 in Asunción, Paraguay, during a two-day meeting in which participated parliamentarians from Brazil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Paraguay, and Peru, as well as experts from PAHO offices in Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, and Paraguay. Representatives from the Ministry of Health and the National Traffic and Traffic Safety Agency of Paraguay and Brazil were also present, as well as representatives of the Central American Parliament.
The Network is part of PAHO/WHO strategic efforts in the field to improve laws and their enforcement, but also call the attention of countries to the urgent need to increase efforts in the implementation of intersectoral measures that include: the improvement of infrastructure, public transportation policies, and the coordination of the work of authorities and control agencies so that these measures are implemented.
Since its creation, the Network has been chaired jointly by Senator Antonio Barrios, President of the Health Commission of the Paraguayan Senate, and Deputy Hugo Leal of the Federal Chamber of Deputies of Brazil and has the sponsorship and technical coordination of PAHO/WHO, represented by the Office of the Legal Counsel and the Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health. In accordance with its operating rules (LINK TO PDF), the Presidency and Vice-Presidency of the Network are honorary, they are elected at its annual session for a period of two years and must rotate between different subregions of the Americas.
The Parliamentary Network for Road Safety of the Americas is an active part of the Global Network for Road Safety Legislators jointly promoted by WHO and the Towards Zero Foundation (a charity based in the United Kingdom). The Global Network arises from the concern of the different parliamentarians who attended the Second High-Level Conference on Road Safety, held in Brazil in 2015, to form a global parliamentary network to advance the road safety agenda in the world. Its formal launch took place in December 2016 in London, UK. The WHO acts as the Secretariat of this Network.
Their Manifesto #4RoadSafety includes ten key recommendations that can help prevent this tragic loss of human life on the world's roads. Encourages parliamentarians around the world to support the current UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2021-2030) and endorses the WHO Save LIVES technical package, which offers priority interventions focused on speed management, leadership, infrastructure design and improvement, vehicle safety standards, enforcement of road safety laws and survival after traffic collisions.
We support the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety and the Sustainable Development Goals target of halving road deaths and injuries by 2030. Parliamentarians can play a decisive role in helping our roads are safe. A 5 year report and stories from the field could be accessed in the following link.
Meetings of the Parliamentary Network for Road Safety of the Americas
On September 9th,2019, the Latin American Parliamentary Network for Road Safety was formed, as a result of the efforts promoted by PAHO / WHO to strengthen and harmonize legislation on health and road safety.