Hiroshima, December 16th 2010 - As the 2020 Vision Campaign gains further momentum, the Mayor of Hiroshima and President of Mayors for Peace launched an urgent appeal to the well-over 4,400 member cities to actively demonstrate their solidarity with Hiroshima and Nagasaki by making voluntary financial contributions towards the campaign aiming to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020. Mayor Akiba appeals to member cities around the world to adopt a City Council resolution which takes into account the political necessity of the campaign and gives Mayors a fair system to calculate their financial contribution taking into account the size of their city and the Gross National Income/capita of their country.
In his letter to all members Mayor Akiba states ''this planet still bristles with 23,000 nuclear weapons. Cities are still threatened with instantaneous obliteration, and just a few of these weapons igniting fire-storms in a few cities would be enough to cause catastrophic climate change that would end human civilization as we know it. As Mayors responsible for protecting our citizens, we are standing up to declare that we will no longer be held hostage, and we reject the right of any nation to destroy this planet’s ecosystem for any reason whatsoever. Cities are not targets!''
The Mayors for Peace founding cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have carried the major financial responsibilities of the network which was founded in 1982. The past seven years the network has grown with more than 1,000%, and the Hiroshima Mayor.
In 2007 the Executive Conference of Mayors for Peace meeting in Florence (Italy) decided to appeal to all member cities to support the campaign financially. Mayor Akiba thanks in his letter the 335 cities from 27 counties who started making financial contributions between 2007 - 2010.
In 2010 it were mostly cities from Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway, Croatia, Italy and Portugal making important contribitions. But an increasing number of cities are stepping in, such as from Iraq, Jordan and Vietnam (see complete list of countries and list of cities).
As the 2020 Vision Campaign gains political momentum to see the start of negotiations to establish a nuclear weapons free world, Mayor Akiba writes: ''Unfortunately, Mayors for Peace lacks the funds to give cities the voice they deserve at the national and international levels. During the past 28 years, we have been financed almost exclusively by the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with an average annual contribution of about 250,000 Euros. Recently, some of our members have started contributing, as shown in the attached list. We are profoundly grateful to those who have helped thus far. We urgently appeal for your city to start making a small annual financial contribution towards the success of the campaign.''
The Mayor of Hiroshima is hopeful that as a result of his appeal an increasing number of cities will adopt a city council resolution to support Mayors for Peace. Mayors for Peace is now the largest and fastest growing network of local governments around the world. It became the main network to protect cities from the scourge of war and mass-destruction.
« back
