Brussels joins leadership as Hiroshima Mayor renews call for elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020

Hiroshima, August 2009 - As ten of thousands gathered to commemorate the Hiroshima bombing on August 6th, Hiroshima Mayor Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba reiterated the urgent need to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020. 

Mr. Freddy Thielemans, the Mayor of City of Brussels, communicated this morning that his city has accepted to serve on the Executive Committee of Mayors for Peace. The letter addressed to Hiroshima Mayor Akiba Tadatoshi also confirms the commitment of the City of Brussels in support of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, a protocol designed to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020. Brussels joining the Executive leadership of Mayors for Peace is viewed as an important political signal. 

The City of Brussels will officially be welcomed in the Executive leadership of Mayors for Peace during the upcoming General Conference of Mayors for Peace, scheduled in Nagasaki August 8 - 10 2009. The Executive Conference of Mayors for Peace counts 16 members to date. 

It was announced today in Hiroshima that over 3,000 cities in 134 countries and regions have joined Mayors for Peace, the international network of local authorities campaigning for the elimination by 2020 of the estimated 24,000 remaining nuclear warheads. Mayors for Peace, founded in 1982 by the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has increased its membership nearly six fold since 2003 (1).

Dr. Akiba, president of Mayors for Peace declared: “Nuclear weapons are a global issue. They pose a threat to all of humankind, are morally unacceptable and pose a greater risk than any problem they seek to solve. In the world today there are almost 24,000 nuclear weapons, together these arsenals have destructive power equivalent to 400,000 Hiroshima bombs, where more than 140,000 people were killed.”

“Cities can no longer be considered as targets, and we need all to stand up against these weapons specifically designed to decimate populations”  said Tadatoshi Akiba. “And we need it quickly – that’s why we have initiated the 2020 vision campaign with the Mayors for Peace network.”

Mayors for Peace works to build solidarity and to facilitate coordination among cities that support the Program to Promote the Solidarity of Cities toward the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons. Its primary goal is to work internationally to raise awareness of the need for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Mayors for Peace will hold its General Conference in Nagasaki from August 8 - 10th 2009.

(1): List of 3,047 member cities on http://2020visioncampaign.org/pages/130/Members

More information

In Hiroshima

Pol DHuyvetter, Director International Campaign Secretariat Mayors for Peace
Mobile +81 80 16 30 61 79

Website:

Mayors for Peace
http://www.2020visioncampaign.org