Your Excellencies, Honorable delegates.Let me begin by thanking the Ministerial Conference hosts and all partners from the 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety, who make possible the youth presence in such an important event:
I would like to start off with two quotes:
First Quote: “In most of the world’s poorest countries “death by traffic” is a bigger killer than major diseases. Road injuries kill more children aged 5 to 14 in poor countries than malaria or AIDS. And they are the single biggest killer of 15- to 29-year-olds. “
Second Quote: “I am worried because we know that even when there are laws, the laws in the books are not the same as laws on the street. I have attended many Global Conferences that have not led to concrete global and local actions. What is right to do, is not always easy to do. I am worried because we live in a world of competing priorities.”
When do you think these quotes were said? These could have been expressed today. Surprisingly, those were from speeches that were given more than a decade ago at the First Global Ministerial Conference in Moscow, and it seems that we are still repeating the same facts today.
Reading those previous speeches made me realize that there has been progress made in the last Decade of Action. Nevertheless, a question that popped up in my mind: Why didn’t we see this progress reflected in the reduction of road traffic deaths? Are we missing something? Are we going to do exactly the same things and expect different results?
Since 2009, we, the youth, have asked for help in the most polite and diplomatic way possible… but our peers keep dying on the roads.
As Omnia said in her opening speech, we are tired of false commitments. We have received promises from governments and other institutions that road traffic injuries were going to be halved by 2020. And here we are extending the date to 2030.
The youth are saying enough is enough. We want to be the last generation facing this global mobility crisis. It’s time to wake up! Strong political will and moral responsibility are crucial. And to be honest, at this point, many of us have lost all belief in our decision-makers to lead the change.
You may not have been part of the decisions made in the past but you have the power to act today and tomorrow. And we, the youth, will also play our part as active citizens in society. We want to be part of the solution as equal partners. Not only informed and consulted but also participate meaningfully in the decision-making process. This will help you shape better policies and services that consider our needs.
Therefore, we have launched a Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety. The Coalition is a group of committed young leaders and youth-led NGOs from diverse backgrounds. We are ready to raise awareness, advocate and be the change agents of our communities towards a safer and healthier future.
The Youth Coalition is demonstrating that by connecting with other pressing issues in the conversation, we can come up with holistic projects and sustainable solutions to ensure an integrated mobility system that is fair, inclusive and accessible.
For example, a young leader is working together with the authorities and youth in Comayagua, Honduras, designing the urban planning of the streets, to ensure slow speeds and multi-modal means of transportation, based on a holistic vision, which includes health, environmental and accessibility components.
Having said that, we ask you to embrace and unleash the full potential of a grassroots youth movement. Investing in us, is investing in the future.
The next decade must be about regaining the trust in our ability to change the system. So I ask:
Ministers – Pick a lane... Will this trip be just a nice memory of Sweden, adopt the Stockholm Declaration and continue business as usual? Or will you act faster, find the finance, and unlock radical solutions.
To City Mayors and urban planners - Pick a lane… either you keep designing polluted and congested cities, or you start focusing on an integrated mobility system that allows us to safely walk, cycle and breathe clean air.
For vehicle manufacturers - Pick a lane... will some of you keep manufacturing, willingly and knowingly, unsafe vehicles to reach your profit? Or you will all commit to a moral standard: that all lives deserve the highest possible safety, no matter where they live.
For road builders – Pick a lane…either you keep building roads that are killing our dreams, or you start protecting vulnerable users, ny not building and funding anything less than 3-star roads.
For civil society at large - Pick a lane, either we remain quiet and accept the risks we face on the road every day or we start mobilizing communities and uniting our voices. Why are we not marching the streets against this road crash epidemic?
How much is a life worth to you? Either we keep preaching or we start reaching concrete results on the ground.
We, the Global Youth Coalition, have picked a lane. We are claiming our space. World leaders, we will be watching which lane you pick.
