The UN resolution supporting a first ever ministerial conference on road safety has been approved by the UN General Assembly. George Robertson, who first proposed the idea and has led the Make Roads Safe campaign, spoke in the debate on behalf of the UK delegation. He showed the general assembly a photo of his own car crash three decades ago, and spoke movingly about some of the people who have been less fortunate.
Michelle Yeoh joined George Robertson for a post-debate briefing for the press, then they presented the Make Roads Safe petition to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Michelle also gave the SG a child's motorcycle helmet from Vietnam.
So the ministerial has been approved, but right up to the last minute one large bloc of countries was still trying to water down the commitment to the ministerial - an attempt blocked by Ambassador Al-Hinai - and the hall of the General Assembly was half empty - a lot of countries were no-shows for this issue which is killing their citizens in the thousands.
It demonstrates that we still have a lot of work to do...
