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MAYORS for PEACE INITIATIVE

Page history last edited by Kathy Shields 15 years, 11 months ago

 

MAYORS for PEACE

SPRINGS ALIVE involvement with Mayors for Peace is described below in a post to the Hiroshima Peace Media Center. The center's webpage contains the complete comments.

 

Wakiso, Uganda

by Martin Sebuliba, Chairman of Springs Alive

(Springs Alive is a community-based organization handling the affairs of Mayors for Peace in Uganda and neighboring countries.)

 

1. The trend in the world is towards globalization and urbanization; more people are living in cities today than ever before, therefore cities tend to be epic centers of war and the threat of armed use of nuclear weapons in the cities is more eminent today. This underlines the need for non-use of nuclear weapons on cities in conflicts; people cannot forget what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 

Looking at our changes in the environment, the depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, floods, etc. are a result of the growing demand in the world for energy consumption. With the desire for countries to adopt cheaper and environment-friendly energy sources, nuclear power use is inevitable and this means the associated by-products such as plutonium can be used to manufacture weapons. In all situations the world is heading to a nuclear age.

 

2. Springs Alive, a local community-based organization, has been spearheading the activities of Mayors for Peace in Uganda and Africa. We became aware of Mayors for Peace in 2005 and, because of the situation expressed above as well as the stance of Mayors for Peace for the abolition of nuclear weapons, we were eager to get involved.

 

With many thanks to the many Mayors, city hall staff and civil society members who help forward the 2020 Vision for a world without nuclear weapons.

More details and updates on www.2020visioncampaign.org

 

Update Posted April 2008 by Martin

Mayors for Peace prepare for Decisive Decade for Nuclear Disarmament, 2010 - 2020

188 new members bring 2,020 membership within reach before New Year. During their meeting November 21 - 22, 2007 in the historic City Hall of Florence (Italy) the 7th Executive Conference (1) of Mayors for Peace vowed to provide global leadership in preparing for the Disarmament Decade called for by the UN General Assembly. The third phase of the 2020 Vision Campaign will be launched in Geneva in May 2008 during the NPT Preparatory Committee meeting there.

 

25th anniversary membership-drive: 2,020 Mayors join the 2020 Vision campaign before January 1st 2008

Mayors for Peace is moving swiftly to reach its target to count 2,020 cities and municipalities on January 1st 2008. On December 1st 2007 the network counted 1,937 members in 126 countries. New members were welcomed from 25 countries: Australia (1), Belgium (21), Botswana (2), Burkina Faso (1), Cameroon (7), Canada (1), Czech Republic (2), Denmark (6), Estonia (1), France (7), Ghana (1), India (2), Iran (1), Iraq (18), Italy (10), Mauritius (1), Netherlands (1), Pakistan (1), Portugal (1), Romania (3), Serbia (1), Tanzania (1), Turkey (2), South-Africa (1) and Uganda (51). During October and November 2007 the network welcomed 144 new members, consolidating Mayors for Peace in Europe and welcoming new membership in four new African countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana and Mauritius. Remarkable also was the new membership of 51 Mayors from Uganda; thanks to the NGO Spings Alive for that breakthrough. On average over 2 new members joined every single day. Count-down to 39! With 83 members short on December 1st efforts are well underway in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy, Norway and the US. Another 44 new members have been accounted for since December 1st: Belgium (11), Germany (16), Norway (12) and others (5). A membership registration-form is attached for your use.

 

World Congress of Cities support Mayors for Peace

The Mayors for Peace welcomed the endorsement of the UCLG, the world largest and most widely recognized mayoral association. The United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) its final Jeju declaration supports the Mayors for Peace campaign to eliminate weapons of mass destruction and calls on all nation states and armed groups to cease considering cities as military objectives – ‘cities are not targets’.

 

Mayors speak-out against US nuclear deployments on their territory

The new membership of the Mayors of Incirlik (Turkey) and Aviano (Italy) where US nuclear bombs are deployed is remarkable and signals the democratic deficit and growing opposition to deployment of US nuclear weapons in Europe. In a common position marking the 20th anniversary of the INF Treaty last December 8th seven Mayors confronted with US nuclear weapons on the territory of their municipality in Belgium, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Turkey demand withdrawal of US nuclear B-61 to comply with NPT Article VI nuclear disarmament obligations.

 

Further capacity building 2008 - 2010

Encouraged by the results of the 25th anniversary membership-drive the Executive Cities of Mayors for Peace decided to continue capacity building with on average one new member per day for the 2008 - 2010 period. Further growth of the organization is essential as Mayors for Peace commits to the elimination of all nuclear weapons by 2020.

The Executive Cities recognized the importance of a range of capacity-building measures during the 2008 - 2010 preparatory phase. Foremost among these is broadening the base of financial support for the 2020 Vision Campaign beyond Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who up till now have footed the entire bill. To this end the Executive Cities founded a special non-profit entity in Belgium to manage the "Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign". It has been authorized to solicit funds from the entire Mayors for Peace membership for the 2020 Vision campaign.

 

Additional Sources of Information

(1) Executive Conference members Mayors for Peace http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/outlines/members.html

 

 

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