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 Mayors For Peace 2020 Vision Campaign Newsletter June 2008 

This monthly newsletter is your source for the latest developments with the 2020 Vision Campaign. Please mail us your stories. You can now also read your stories on the Spanish version of the website.

In this issue:
 Hiroshima and Nagasaki Mayors urge Cities to support H/N Protocol

IImage Genevan a letter of June 15th Dr. Akiba Tadatoshi, Mayor of Hiroshima, and Mr. Tomihisa Taue, Mayor of Nagasaki, invited all members of Mayors for Peace to sign the Cities Appeal in preparation of the next NPT Review Conference in 2010 where the Cities Appeal will be formally presented. 

In the letter Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki declared: "Taking the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as the foundation, we have set forth a plan of action in the form of a Protocol to the Treaty which would allow all states to contribute to realizing the 2020 Vision. We call this protocol the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol" in the profound hope that this will encourage people throughout the world to accord it commensurate attention".

Click here for the letter, the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol and the Cities Appeal
  Membership climbs to 2,277 cities in 130 countries

During the last 3 weeks of May another 51 new member cities have joined Mayors for Peace and now counts 2,277 member cities in 130 countries. We welcomed new members from Austria (1), Belgium (1), Chile (2), Croatia (1), Iraq (27), Japan (7), Spain (2), Switzerland (3) and USA (7). Click here for the list of the new 51 member cities.

The first 4 months of 2008 we welcomed 249 new members from 22 countries: Australia (2), Austria (1), Belgium (15), Canada (7), Chile (2), Croatia (2), Czech Republic (7), Denmark (5), Equador (1), France (7),  Iraq (27), Italy (6), Japan (137), Luxembourg (2), Mali (1), Netherlands (3), South Africa (1), Spain (6), Sweden (2), Switzerland (4), USA (9) and Venezuela (2).

Help us to recruit new members by using the REGISTRATION-FORM
To find the list of all 2,277 members Click here!
  German City of Heidelberg donates 5000 Euro  for the abolition of nuclear weapons

In June the German City of Heidelberg has joined Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the global campaign to abolish nuclear weapons by donating 5000 Euro to the 2020 Vision Campaign. Among larger cities Heidelberg joins the Swiss Cities of Geneva and Lausanne who have also made substantial financial contributions to the new campaign office  of Mayors for Peace in Ypres. These larger cities have all used the 0,025 Euro/inhabitant as a guideline for their important contributions. However, it is clear that without the leadership of Mayors in many smaller municipalities the campaign could not continue to gather growing support. The past month we also received a financial commitment from the Mayor of Vila-seca (Spain),  Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (Italy) and a growing number of Belgian Cities who continue to demonstrate a remarkable solidarity with the Japanese cities..

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The 0,025 € -formula seems to be a fair formula for almost all Cities to demonstrate solidarity towards the Cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who carried the financial responsibilities of Mayors for Peace for the past 25 years. As of June 28th 2008 our international campaign received financial commitments from 83 cities. We wish to thank these cities for their generosity. However, we urgently need more cities to step in and demonstrate solidarity with the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign can only succeed with sufficient staff and funding. Between 2004 and 2007 Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been spending on average 340.000 Euro's annually for Mayors for Peace activities alone. In a time of economic contraction, Hiroshima and Nagasaki cannot increase this funding to the level required for an effective, global campaign. Thus, the success of the 2020 Vision Campaign is entirely dependent on the willingness of other Mayors for Peace members to provide financial support.

Please make this a priority in your city council. We urgently need your support to achieve our goal.
Please find here the draft resolution for your City Council. We also have the resolution in Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish. MORE
 First World Conference of City Diplomacy supports Mayors for Peace

imageAround 400 local government representatives from more than 70 different countries came together in The Hague for the First World Conference on City Diplomacy.

The participants, representatives from countries in conflict and their partners, discussed the role that local governments can play in preventing conflict, promoting dialogue and supporting colleagues in reconstruction efforts in post conflict situations.

The document which resulted from the two-day discussion and debate sets out an agenda for the World Organization of United Cities and Local Goverments in this area.  This final document "recalled the commitment of local governments expressed in the Final Declaration of the UCLG Congress "Changing Cities are Driving our World" (Jeju, October 2007), noting in particular the following statement 'We support the initiative of the Mayors for Peace campaign which lobbies the international community to renounce weapons of mass destruction. We call on nation states and armed groups to cease considering cities as military objectives". 

Mayors for Peace staff wishes to thank Ms. Irma Dioli, Vice-President of the Province of Milan (Italy), Mr. Josep Mayoral, Mayor of Granollers (Spain) and Mr. Michel Cibot, City manager of Malakoff (France) for their valuable contributions during the Conference.  MORE
Inter Press Service report on Hirishima-Nagasaki Protocol, USCM
imageAn Inter Press Service newswire draws attention to the recent advance of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol at the US Conference of Mayors last week.  The IPS newsstory also covers the efforts of Hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bomb) to the G8 Summit leaders to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. The G8 leaders will be meeting in Hokkaido, Japan on July 7th - 9th.  Ms. Emiko Okada (picture), a 71-year-old survivor of the atomic blasts 63 years ago, wrote: "We are the people who can give you the best perspective on the horrors of nuclear weapons as we live through it".

Nearly 150 mayors and local assembly leaders in Hokkaido (northern Japan) urge the Japanese Government to raise the total abolition of nuclear weapons as a priority issue for the coming G8 Summit. MORE

 US Conference of Mayors Adopts Resolution for Elimination Nuclear Weapons by 2020



image On June 23, 2008, the US Conference of Mayors (USCM), at its 76th annual meeting in Miami, Florida, unanimously adopted a far-reaching resolution entitled “Support for the Elimination of All Nuclear Weapons by the Year 2020.” 

The resolution, submitted by Mayors for Peace Vice-President Donald Plusquellic (Akron, Ohio) and 9 co-sponsors, recommends that the U.S. government “urgently consider” an agreement - the “Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol” - as a means of “fulfilling the promise of the NPT by the year 2020, thereby meeting the obligation found by the International Court of Justice in 1996 to ‘conclude negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control.’” 

The resolution also encourages USCM members to participate in the delegation and activities being organized by Mayors for Peace at the third NPT Review Conference Preparatory Committee Meeting in New York in May 2009  MORE
Mayor of Granollers and Catalan Association of Municipalities calls its members to enroll support 

imageOn May 31st the Catalan City of Granollers commemorated the 70th anniversary of the bombings of their city during the Spanish civil war.
Mr. Josep Mayoral, the Mayor of Granollers set the stage for very well organized and attended events concluded with a peace manifesto calling for Cities never to be targets again and supporting the Mayors for Peace campaign.
MORE

Shortly afterwards Europa Press reported that the Catalan association of municipalities (ACM) is calling its members to register its support for the Mayors for Peace. The ACM has delivered among its municipalities the registration form required to become a member of the international network Mayors for Peace whose final target is to abolish nuclear weapons.  According to an official statement, about 50 Catalan Mayors are already members of Mayors for Peace. We invite our members to follow this example and urge their regional and national mayoral associations to co-operate in the abolition of nuclear weapons. . MORE
© Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign     

Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign

International secretariat

Ypres City Hall
Grote Markt 34
8900 Ypres,
BELGIUM

Phone  + 32-57-38 89 57
Fax :    +32-57-23 92 76 

E-mail: 2020visioncampaign@ieper.be

Website: http://www.2020visioncampaign.org/ 

Office open :
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Ypres is a Peace City and was the first city where chemical weapons were used during the First World War.
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