Support for 2020 VC from Italian "Coordinamento Nazionale di Enti Locale per la Pace e i Diritti Umani"
March 1, 2008
The Coordination is one of the driving forces behind the Tavole della Pace (the peace round-tables), and they share offices in Perugia. Flavio Lotti, the coordinator of the Coordinamento reaffirmed the formal decision to join Mayors for Peace and the 2020 Vision Campaign. Ten members of the Presidency were already member of Mayors for Peace. Two had the mandate to decide on the spot and completed the registration-from: the Province of Milano and the municipality of Riccione.
In an meeting with Flavio Lotti he informed Pol DHuyvetter that they will now draft an agreement between the Italian coordination and Mayors for Peace for co-operation, amongst others on the 2020 Vision campaign. This proposal should be made within the next 2 - 3 weeks. Flavio will also discuss this with the members and see what they will do practically for MfP, such as recruitment, re-launching an impressive exhibition they made in 1997, etc. He also clarified that the 2020 Vision Campaign will be firmly on the agenda of the next national congress on October 23 - 25 2008.
During the next days I had the opportunity to discuss and pass on Italian drafts of the cross-party letters including the resolution for financial support to Ms. Irma Dioli of the Province of Milano, Dr. Manlio Di Lorenzo of the City of Genova, the Mayor Mr. Stafano Fusi and Ms. Gianna Magnani, from the Comune di Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, and Ms. Bruna Giovanna Pineda from the Comune di Rovigo. We'll follow-up from Ypres with Lisa and Firenze.
Tavole della Pace, Assisi
Following the meeting of the Presidency of the Coordination we joined the 24th Seminar of the Tavole della Pace. The Tavole della Pace was created in 1996. It brings together the "Local authorities for peace and human rights" and social movements and they organise the bi-annual historic march from Perugia to Assisi. Last year the 25-km march mobilized over 200,000 people.
I have asked the people of the communications office to provide us with a short briefing paper about the work of the Tavole della Pace and the Coordination of Local Authorities. I must say that I was deeply impressed by the smooth organisation and the diversity and depth of the debates for the next one and a half day: a wide range of issues going from conflict-zones (Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Congo, Somalia, Kenya, ...) to the 40th anniversary of the Human Rights declaration, to the role of the media ... or the Italian campaign for a future without nuclear weapons. I was also invited to make a short presentation on Mayors for Peace and the 2020 Vision campaign and reminded people of the dangers of nuclear proliferation, the illegal nature of nuclear weapons, the role of Italy within th UN and NATO, ... and the need for capacity building. Here of course I invited the Coordination and the Tavole della Pace to take up te challenge and co-operate with the City of Firenze and ANCI to increase Italian membership possible up to a total of 1,000 by spring 2009.
