Membership climbs to 2,277 with 51 new members

June 2, 2008

The past 3 weeks and as of June 2nd 2008,  51 new member cities have joined Mayors for Peace and now counts 2,277 member cities in 129 countries. We welcome new members from Austria (1), Belgium (1), Chile (2), Croatia (1), Iraq (27), Japan (7), Spain (2), Switzerland (3) and USA (7).

Click here for the list of the new 51 member cities.

Since January 28th 2008 the network has welcomed 249 new members, which is without doubt an encouragement for all involved in preparing for the Decisive Decade for Nuclear Disarmament.

The past 4 months we welcomed new members from 22 countries: Australia (2), Austria (1), Belgium (15), Canada (7), Chile (2), Croatia (2), Czech Republic (7), Denmark (5), Equador (1), France (7),  Iraq (27), Italy (6), Japan (137), Luxembourg (2), Mali (1), Netherlands (3), South Africa (1), Spain (6), Sweden (2), Switzerland (4), USA (9) and Venezuela (2).

The important increase of members in Iraq is a result from the Conference "From Genocide to Peace" which brought together cities from the region of northern Iraq (Kurdistan) marking the 20th anniversary of the cruel Halabja gas attack in March 1988. The gas attack on the City of Halabja in March 1988 killed around 5,000 civilians. The commemoration in Sulaimaniyah and Halabja were organised by Mr. Khder Kareem, the Mayor of Halabja, and Mr. Othman Rashid Aziz, the General Director of the Governorate of Sulymanyah region, with support of the Kurdish regional government. The  well-attended Conference has strenghtened co-operation between the Iraqui Mayors and the Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign.

The Mayors for Peace network was represented in Iraq by the 2020 Vision Campaign office manager from Ypres who declared "The growing presence of Mayors for Peace Iraq is a hopeful event in a country which has been marked by brutal wars and violence for the past 25 years".