Hiroshima, August 1st 2010 – Mayors for Peace announces that last month 32 local governments have joined their fast-growing global network to ban nuclear weapons by 2020. With today 4,069 members in 144 countries and regions (1), Mayors for Peace repeats its urgent call upon all governments to immediately start negotiations for an international treaty to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020.
A rapidly increasing number of cities has been showing support to the goals of the organisation headquartered in Hiroshima. The latest members are from Albania (1), Croatia (1), France (1), Germany (1), Greece (3), Iraq (11), Italy (1) and Japan (13).
The ongoing growth in Japan, led by the organization's founding cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was this month closely followed by Iraq under the efforts of Halabja, site of the use of chemical weapons in 1988. Many of the leading cities in Mayors for Peace have also suffered severely from the scourge of war.
The importance of the work of the organisation was welcomed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message to the international conference sponsored by Mayors for Peace held in Hiroshima July 28th & 29th, where he stressed that “Most of the world’s population today lives in cities. If the mayors of the world are uniting, the world is uniting”.
Ban Ki-moon will be the first UN Secretary-General to participate in the Hiroshima commemoration on August 6th. marking the 65th anniversary of the atomicr bombing of the city. This will also be the first time that the US, the only country that has used nuclear weapons, will send an Ambassador to participate in the Hiroshima commemoration.
While the idea that cities are not targets is gathering increasing support from local governments around the world, the financial contributions to enable the work of the organization has been mostly raised by cities that have suffered the scourge of war. In July 2010 the financial contributions received were raised by the cities of Ypres (Belgium), which was completely destroyed during the First World War; Granollers (Spain), that was bombed during the Spanish Civil War; and Hanover (Germany), which was the target of strategic bombings during World War II. But also other cities, part of the campaign's the leadership, are stepping up efforts to raise funds. The expanding leadership of Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign now counts 23 members (1).
Note:
(1) Leadership Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign: the 13 Executive Members are the Mayors of Hiroshima & Nagasaki (Japan), Akron (US), Ypres (Belgium), Biograd (Croatia), Florence (Italy), Granollers (Spain), Halabja (Iraq), Hanover (Germany), Malakoff (France), Manchester (UK), Volgograd (Russia), and Waitakere (New Zealand). To date ten cities have accepted Associate Membership: Fremantle (Australia), Bastogne (Belgium), Fongo-Tongo (Cameroon), Matagalapa (Nicaragua), Mexico City (Mexico), Montevideo (Uruguay), Montreal (Canada), Mora (Costa Rica), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and Whistler (Canada).
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