Press
Release from FEVR
World Day of Remembrance
for Road Traffic Victims
Sunday, 19th November
2017
This year again, millions of people killed
on the world’s roads and many millions injured will be remembered on World Day
- a Day now observed throughout the whole world.
Theme for WDR 2017:
From Global
Remembrance to Global Action across the Decade
2020 Target:
reduce road fatalities AND serious injuries by 50%*
Let’s make
2011-2020 a Decade to remember!
*Sustainable
Development Goal 3.6: Reduce fatalities & serious injuries by 50% by 2020
This theme is
based on Pillar 1 of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action – Road Safety
Management, which includes monitoring of targets. The 50% target for both
deaths and serious injuries (Injuries had been mostly ignored until now!)
was chosen because this target is part of the Sustainable Development Goal
adopted by the UN General Assembly. *
The World
Health Organisation (WHO) has a major role of monitoring the achievement of the
targets through its global status reports.
WHO is
collaborating with all other UN agencies and stakeholders to accelerate action
in order to achieve the ambitious target.
FEVR has
represented road traffic victims on the UNRSC, (UN Road Safety Collaboration)
chaired by WHO Director Etienne Krug, from its inception in 2004 and it is
through the support of Dr Krug and the UNRSC that our World Day received UN
recognition in 2005 and has become the global Day it is today.
Jeannot Mersch, president of FEVR said:"Road victims throughout the world owe
a debt of gratitude to Dr Krug for recognizing the importance to them of having
their loss and suffering acknowledged and for being instrumental in promoting
FEVR's World Day to it becoming the UN's World Day. Road victim and road safety
NGOs are also grateful to Dr Krug for his annual World Day message."
Brigitte
Chaudhry, author of
the WDR website, former FEVR president and initiator of the Brussels NGO
declaration** who promoted also the World Day from its beginning, said:
"The fact that the Sustainable
Development Goal includes the 50% target for reducing road deaths &
injuries increases our hope it may be achieved. But we must remember that even
this ambitious target means that thousands of deaths and injuries are actually
accepted, even expected -- something unthinkable for deaths and injuries from
other causes! As road victim advocates we demand at least due provisions for
those expected casualties."
We also want
to thank the FIA Foundation for their financial support,
MAPFRE Fundacion for having produced this year’s video and all who share
and help promote #WDoR2017.
Publicity and publicity materials:
For this
year’s World Day, FEVR is again offerering a poster and video to all WDR event
organizers and is collating the events held worldwide:
Please name the source in press releases and
announcements related to the World Day.
