As Cities Appeal tops 300, President issues Day of Peace Message

September 19, 2008

Responding to the urging of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the 2020 Vision Campaign, Mayor Luc Dehaene of Ypres, Belgium, mayors from around the world helped to push the signature total for the  Cities Appeal in support of the Hiroshima Nagasaki Protocol past the 300 mark.  For the latest listing of signatories to the Cities Appeal click here.

The President of Mayors for Peace, Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima, Japan, has issued a message for the International Day of Peace.   Please feel free to disseminate this Message in any appropriate manner on International Peace Day, or thereafter.

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE - September 21st 2008
Message from the President of Mayors for Peace

On behalf of the over 2400 cities affiliated with Mayors for Peace in over 130 countries, I send you warm wishes for the success of your International Peace Day activities.  Thank you for taking time from your busy lives to contemplate the preciousness of peace.

As much as we would all like to believe that a single day of devotion to peace would allow peace to prevail henceforth, worldwide, we know in our hearts that establishing and preserving peace is a constant struggle.  So on this day we need to reflect on the most significant steps we can each take to make sure peace is given a fair chance in our turbulent world.

May I make a suggestion?  Those of you who are associated with local government, those of you who know your mayor and city councilors, please consider joining forces with Mayors for Peace.  Our members and supporters are determined to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction, in particular, nuclear weapons which have not yet been banned, by the year 2020.  Our members are also determined to protect their cities from the scourge of war, not by building walls but through inter-city cooperation, particularly in establishing a norm against the use of explosive force in cities and all populated areas.

We are currently gathering signatures on a Cities Appeal in support of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol.  The Protocol is geared to fulfilling the promise of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to end the discrimination between nuclear haves and haves-not; no nation should retain this means of incinerating a city in a single blast.  Already over 300 cities are on board the Appeal; I believe every mayor and city councilor should sign on!

Every citizen should sign the Cities Are Not Targets! petition.  It not only commends the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol to the attention of your government, it stands up for the noncombatants that are in the crosshairs of artillery gunners, bombardiers, and missile launchers.

On Disarmament Week in October, we will be submitting to the UN Secretary General in New York a progress report on the support for these documents.  I sincerely hope that, with your support, I can point to a surge of support, beginning on International Peace Day, for both the Cities Appeal and the “Cities Are Not Targets!” Petition.   May I thank you in advance?

I also invite you to join Mayors for Peace in preparing for the International Decade for Disarmament, 2010 to 2020.  Let’s make it a decisive decade for nuclear disarmament and for the safety of our cities.  We must all help each other to achieve a less threatening and more peaceful world.

Thank you for the opportunity to convey this message.

Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of the City of Hiroshima, 21 September 2008

The Cities Appeal for the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol and the Cities are Not Targets! Petition can all be found at www.2020visioncampaign.org .