This newsletter is your source for the latest developments with the 2020 Vision Campaign. Please mail us any relevant stories you might have. 

The team here at the Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy, healthy and peaceful 2009.  Let's make this year a decisive one for the security of the world and the abolition of nuclear weapons!

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In this issue:

• Capital cities across the world push for the adoption of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol
• Leadership of Mayors for Peace condemns the bombardment of Gaza
• Support for Protocol growing in Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg
• Mayors for Peace leadership envisions 2020 Olympics in a nuclear-weapon-free world
• With 2,635 members from 134 countries and regions, growth for 2008 far exceeds projections
• 108 cities step up with financial support, pushing for a nuclear-weapon-free world
• President of UN General Assembly welcomes and supports Mayors for Peace initiatives
• Global disarmament thinkers gather to envision a 'World Without Nuclear Weapons'
• New coalition of War Scourged Cities announced by Volgograd
• More latest news stories on our website

Capital cities across the world push for the adoption of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol

As the Cities Appeal signature drive gathers strength, last week surpassing 500 signatories, we gladly note the backing of a total of ten capital cities, from South Asia to South America and up to Northern Europe.

The Mayors of the cities of Bern (Switzerland), Kathmandu (Nepal), London (UK), Luxembourg (Luxembourg), Montevideo (Uruguay), Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago), Rome (Italy), Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Stockholm (Sweden) and Wellington (New Zealand) have all come forward in support of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol.

On November 9 2008, Luxembourg Mayor and signatory Paul Helminger hosted an academic conference at Luxembourg City Hall featuring Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima and President of Mayors for Peace. Mayor Helminger, who also serves in the Luxembourg parliament and is a member of PNND, used the occasion to join Mayor Akiba in promoting the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol.

See: http://www.gsinstitute.org/pnnd/updates/21.html
For more details click here.

Pictured: Mayor Akiba of Hiroshima and Mayor Helminger of Luxembourg at Luxembourg City Hall, Nov. 9 2008.

Leadership of Mayors for Peace condemns the bombardment of Gaza

In line with the "Cities Are Not Targets!" Project, on January 15th the leading body of Mayors for Peace issued a statement on the conflict in and around the Gaza Strip.  The disproportionate nature of the Israeli attack on the densely populated Palestinian cities was singled out for the harshest condemnation.  Unleashing massive explosions in the heart of a city is simply intolerable -- no better than terrorism.

The Executive Conference of Mayors for Peace, acting on behalf of its 2,635 members, condemned the "lack of humanity" of the Israeli government, recalling August 2006 when Mayors for Peace condemned the disproportionate bombardment of populated areas in Lebanon by Israeli armed forces. 

The full text of the Statement can be found here.

On November 10th 2008, the Board of Directors and General Meetings took place in Ypres City Hall within the solemn context of the commemorations for the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. Representatives of the Executive cities of Mayors for Peace gathered in Ypres to fulfill their role as part of the leadership.  Mayors and mayoral representatives travelled from Biograd na Moru (Croatia), Florence (Italy), Granollers (Spain), Halabja (Iraq), Hannover (Germany), Hiroshima (Japan),  Malakoff (France) , Manchester (UK), North Olmsted (USA) and Volgograd, previously Stalingrad, (Russia).

Most notably, an exciting proposal for a Hiroshima and Nagasaki bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games received the support of all delegates present. The prospect of opening the 2020 Olympics in Hiroshima & Nagasaki struck a chord, going against the over-commercialisation of the recent Olympics Games and offering some powerful symbolism with the possibility of celebrating the Games in a nuclear-weapons-free world.

For further details, please click here.

Pictured, (l-r): Aaron Tovish (Campaign Director), Mayor Akiba, Mayor Dehaene (Ypres), Pol D'Huyvetter (Ypres Office Director) & Filip Deheegher (Dir. Ypres Peace Dept.) at Mayors for Peace General Meeting.

Mayors for Peace enters 2009 with a membership count beyond expectations: 2,635 cities and municipalities in 134 countries and regions across the world have joined in the chorus demanding universal nuclear disarmament. In 2008, Mayors for Peace welcomed a total of 615 new member cities. This is an unexpected success considering the projected aim of 365 new members for the year, or an average of one member per day.

For an impressive outpouring of support from Italy we must thank the Italian National Association of Municipalities (ANCI), who have recently carried out a cross-party mailing on our behalf to all Italian mayors. Sent in the name of five mayors and the Peace Commissioner of the Province of Milan, it continues to have impressive results.

Long-standing cooperation with our grassroots supporters in Norway, Israel and Spain have also lead to significant growth in those countries of late.

Find more information on our new members here.

We now count financial contributions from 108 cities towards the elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020.

Most recently, the Italian city of Florence has taken another step in fulfilling its role as a Vice President City of Mayors for Peace by committing €6,000 to the Campaign to be donated in 2009.

With GB£8,700 the City of Manchester (Lord Mayor Mavis Smitheman pictured) is today the largest one-off contributor, with the exception of course of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who reaffirmed their commitment to continue to contribute on average €250,000 annually towards the 2020 Vision Campaign.

Fundraising for the 2020 Vision Campaign is expected to take on a new lease of life in the months to come as we welcome Myriam Louisa Chaabnia to the Ypres Secretariat team.  She is already getting down to business as Fundraiser and Assistant Manager, bringing new ideas and dynamism to the 2020 Vision Campaign effort.

For more information on all our contributors and our team, please see the 2020 Vision Campaign website.

Global disarmament thinkers gather to envision a 'World Without Nuclear Weapons'

On 9th December 2008, a 2020 Vision Campaign delegation made their presence felt at European Parliament (Brussels) attending the conference, "Peace and Disarmament: A World Without Nuclear Weapons?" organized by PSE, The Socialist Group in European Parliament.

Speakers included Sergio Duarte, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs; Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy; Volodymyr Yelchenko, Chairman of the 2010 NPT Review Conference and Baroness Williams of Crosby, Advisor on Nuclear Proliferation to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

In a significant boost to the Campaign, we heard word that the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol will be included in a Resolution towards the 2009 NPT PrepCom to be tabled at European Parliament. This initiative received support from Ana Gomes, MEP & Vice-Chair of EP subcommittee on Security and Defense, as well as from the Green Group representative for Disarmament Affairs, Mr. Ernst Guelcher.

Pictured: Mr. Javier Solana (EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy)  
Photo copyright: socialistgroup.eu
  

  New coalition of War Scourged Cities announced by Volgograd

On the 12th November 2008, Ms. Elena Vasilevskaya read a message from Alexander Davydenko, the First Vice-Mayor of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad and Vice-President City of Mayors for Peace) during a symposium hosted at Brussels City Hall - "Perspectives on Nuclear Disarmament 2010/2020".  In the speech Ms. Vasilevskaya expressed her city's decision to co-chair a special advisory group of War-Scourged Cities to be launched by the 2020 Vision Campaign in the near future. All cities which have experienced the scourge of war in the last 100 years are invited to join and push for the international community to finally learn from its mistakes of the past.

In her address she drew on the tragic experience of her own city to call for united action among the cities of the world and support for the Mayors for Peace "Cities Are Not Targets!" initiative:

"Ypres, Gernika, Coventry, Stalingrad, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tskhinval - this tragic list should be stopped. Cities need to have a mechanism for responding to major and minor violations of cities.  We are aiming to do better through the Cities Are Not Targets! project..."

For more information, please click here.
 
Pictured: Alexander Davydenko and Elena Vasilevskaya, the delegation from Volgograd at the General Meeting of Mayors for Peace.

Editor of this issue: Jennie Corbett  ? Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign     

Ypres is a Peace City and was the first city where chemical weapons were used during the First World War.
Find pictures and more information here