In past years, YOURS has authored several youth declarations for road safety giving youth around the world a robust advocacy document to push for road safety at a governmental level. As we know, road safety is a multisectoral issue, meaning many of the different groups in society are required to work together to tackle different elements of road safety. With these declarations, young people have been able to lobby decision makers and open dialogue with those in power as well as their peers. We have now placed all declarations centrally available to view.
As part of our key pillar of ‘Advocacy and Awareness’, YOURS has been involved in a range of youth declarations for road safety. Declarations act as a fundamental advocacy tool to open dialogue between young people and key decision makers to discuss road safety and lobby for increased measures to save young lives. Youth declarations can be a powerful tool for advocacy, in fact, YOURS was born from the World Youth Declaration for Road Safety 2007.
The first World Youth Declaration for Road Safety was adopted during the United Nations World Youth Assembly for Road Safety 2007 and was taken around the world by hundreds of World Youth Ambassadors for Road Safety.
The World Youth Declaration for Road Safety was adopted by over 400 young people from 100 countries at the first ever United Nations World Youth Assembly for Road Safety 2007. The declaration was subsequently translated into many languages and presented to road safety and transport ministers all around the world officially creating the global youth movement for road safety. On the back of the ‘travelling declaration’ hundreds of road safety initiatives were started by young people who used their experiences to call for an organization to harmonize their voice and act as the global platform and umbrella of youth and road safety organization; that organization is YOURS – Youth and Road Safety.
It is clear how much of an impact a youth declaration for road safety can have and since then, we have been involved in the drafting, ratification and adoption of declarations around the world. Until now, the declarations have not been hosted in one central location and so we met the need to illustrate our advocacy efforts and have catalogued all of our declarations to view the evolution of the global youth movement for road safety.
One of our recent declarations includes the African Youth Declaration for Road Safety taken to seven countries in West Africa and presented to decision makers in the region.
Empowering young advocates with a tool, written with specific local issues in mind has given youth the opportunity to open up dialogue with key decision makers. Sometimes, young people have boundless energy and ideas to run road safety projects but when meeting decision makers on enacting road safety measures, can sometimes fall short in demanded or discussing the issues that matter to youth.
A declaration offers these advocates clear and concise ‘demands’ on which to open access to those in power and those who can make things happen on a local, national and regional level. Additionally, the more young people unified with a declaration and the more decision makers approached, the higher road safety will be in the mindset of these people with the potential for road safety to then appear higher on the agendas.
Youth Declarations for Road Safety are only as significant as their active persual and implementation. Youth can use these declarations to put pressure on decision makers for road safety but we must ensure that all declarations are followed up on to see if the adoption and endorsement of such declarations have been acted upon.