4037 cities demand the elimination of nuclear weapons
July 1, 2010
Hiroshima, July 1st 2010 - Mayors for Peace proudly announced today that 4,037 member cities in 144 countries and regions have joined the campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons by 2020. Mayors for Peace is a network of local governments headquartered in the City of Hiroshima. Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba, the Mayor of Hiroshima and President of Mayors for Peace spearheads an international campaign for nuclear weapon states to stop considering cities as targets for weapons of mass destruction.
In June 72 new members were welcomed. The previous months we see systematic growth of membership as a result of coordinated efforts in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Greece, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden and the USA, while a new effort was developed in Ethiopia last month. You can find the detailed list of the 72 new members if you click here
Mayors for Peace congratulates the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) for unanimously adopting a groundbreaking resolution last month at the conclusion of its 78th annual USCM meeting in Oklahoma City on June 14, 2010.. The resolution is Supporting U.S. Participation in Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and Redirection of Nuclear Weapons Spending to Meet the Needs of Cities (more details).
In June 72 new members were welcomed. The previous months we see systematic growth of membership as a result of coordinated efforts in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Greece, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden and the USA, while a new effort was developed in Ethiopia last month. You can find the detailed list of the 72 new members if you click here
Mayors for Peace congratulates the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) for unanimously adopting a groundbreaking resolution last month at the conclusion of its 78th annual USCM meeting in Oklahoma City on June 14, 2010.. The resolution is Supporting U.S. Participation in Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and Redirection of Nuclear Weapons Spending to Meet the Needs of Cities (more details).
New York, May 2nd 2010 - Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with delegation from Mayors for Peace at head of a rally of 20,000 people marching to UN headquarters. Picture: Mayors for Peace
Last month membership increased in Australia (8), Brazil (1), Canada (2), Ethiopia (4) Germany (1), Greece (2), Italy (1), Japan (39), Macedonia (1), Mexico (1) Spain (5), Sweden (2), Thailand (1), USA (2), Venezuela (1) and Viet Nam (1).
The general distribution of membership remains unchanged form last month. Nearly half of our member mayors are from Europe (1,984 +12); Asia has the second largest number of members (1,171 +41); followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (313 +3); North-America (248 +4), Africa (210 +4) and Oceania (111 +8).
To work with cities around the world, the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki founded Mayors for Peace at a Special Session on Disarmament at the UN in 1982. In 2003 the organization launched the 2020 Vision, a campaign to abolish nuclear weapons by the year 2020. Mayors for Peace has organized Mayoral Delegations to all the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conferences and Preparatory Committees meetings since 2004, calling for a commencement of negotiations towards the realization of peaceful world free from nuclear weapons.
In 2008 Mayors for Peace advanced the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, a clear roadmap towards the total abolition of nuclear weapons by 2020. At the citizen level the organization conducted a Cities Are Not Targets project, a petition drive to support the total abolition of nuclear weapons by 2020. On the occasion of the 2010 NPT Review Conference this past May more than 1 million signatures were submitted to the president of the NPT Review Conference at the UN in New York.
In August 1945, a single atomic bombs dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki instantaneously reduced them to rubble, taking vast numbers of precious lives. To ensure that the atomic tragedy is never repeated anywhere on earth, Hiroshima and Nagasaki have consistently sought to persuade the world that nuclear weapons are inhumane and have continually called for their total abolition.
