Mayors for Peace
Encyclopedia
Mayors for Peace is an international organization of cities, dedicated for the promotion of peace that was established in 1982 at the initiative of then mayor of Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...

 Takeshi Araki
Takeshi Araki
was the mayor of Hiroshima from 1975 to 1991.In April 1947, he was elected as member of the Hiroshima city council, and as member of the Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly in 1951.Araki was elected mayor of Hiroshima in 1975...

.

The current mayor of Hiroshima, Tadatoshi Akiba
Tadatoshi Akiba
is a Japanese politician and served as the mayor of the city of Hiroshima, Japan from 1999 to 2011.- Early life :He studied mathematics at the University of Tokyo, receiving a B.S. in 1966 and an M.S. in 1968. He continued his studies under John Milnor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,...

, is the President of the organization today.

Mayors for Peace was started in Japan and since then Mayors throughout the World have signed on. When Mayors sign on it means they support the commencement of negotiations towards the elimination of nuclear weapons by the year 2020.

In Hiroshima in 1945 an estimated 140.000 human beings died because of the nuclear explosion. According to the Federation of American Scientists
Federation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists is a nonpartisan, 501 organization intent on using science and scientific analysis to attempt make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs...

 today there are around 26.000 nuclear warheads that together have a total yield of almost half a million times the 15 kiloton Hiroshima bomb.

On February 1st, 2011, Mayors for Peace counted 4,515 members in 150 countries around the world.

The Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign

The 2020 Vision Campaign
2020 Vision Campaign
The 2020 Vision Campaign is an international campaign pushing for a nuclear-weapon-free world by the year 2020. It was initiated on a provisional basis by the Executive Cities of Mayors for Peace at their meeting in Manchester, UK, in October 2003...

 is the main vehicle for advancing the agenda of Mayors for Peace - a nuclear-weapon-free world by the year 2020. It was initiated on a provisional basis by the Executive Cities of Mayors for Peace at their meeting in Manchester, UK, in October 2003. It was launched under the name 'Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons' in November of that year at the 2nd Citizens Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons held in Nagasaki, Japan. In August 2005, the World Conference endorsed continuation of the Campaign under the title of the '2020 Vision Campaign'.

From May 2008 till May 2009, the main focus of the work of the 2020 Vision Campaign has been the signature drive for the Cities Appeal in support of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol. The Protocol embeds the objective of the 2020 Vision Campaign in a realistic framework. As a protocol to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), it seeks to challenge national governments to follow through on the commitments they made in Article VI the Treaty.

By signing the Cities Appeal, Mayors and elected local officials around the world are given the chance to get behind the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol ahead of the formal and final presentation of the results of the international signature drive at the 2010 NPT Review Conference at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Activities in the USA

In Western Massachusetts, a campaign was spearheaded from grassroots organizers in 11 towns. After 2 years of hard working starting in The autumn of 2005 and continuing today, all eleven Western Ma Mayors have signed on to the campaign.

This encouraged some legislative action, and the state Reps brought forth a resolution for nuclear abolition by 2020 which passed in the Massachusetts House and Senate. Now Senator Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...

 was asked to bring the resolution to the federal level. However, after Senator Kennedy died there are no plans to see the resolution at a national level.

2011 Nobel Peace Prize nomination

Mayors for Peace were nominated for 2011 Nobel Peace Prize by 1976 Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire. Maguire, who nominated Mayors for Peace and Nihon Hidankyo jointly for the prize, said she believes that "both organizations have fulfilled the wish of Alfred Nobel to work for peace and disarmament and awarding the prize jointly to them would recognize the great sacrifice of especially the Hibabushas and give support and encouragement to all working on one of the greatest challenges to humanity – to rid the world of all nuclear weapons and build peace amongst the human family."

External links

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