Mayors for Peace reaches 5,000 members

Mayors for Peace members at the NPT Review Conference in 2010

Mayors for Peace, a Japan-based NGO that seeks the abolition of nuclear weapons worldwide through disarmament, passed a membership milestone earlier this month.

More than 5,000 mayors from 151 countries and regions in the world are now members of the organization, which is the largest and fastest growing association of local governments in the world.

“Cities are increasingly becoming a force for peace in the world,” writes Jackie Cabasso, the North American Co-ordinator of Mayors for Peace, “no more so than on the issue of abolishing nuclear weapons.” She points out that the membership of the group now includes over half of the largest cities and capitals of the world:
Hiroshima and Nagasaki founded the organization in 1982.  Their experiences in 1945 of the destructive power of nuclear weapons lent great force to their opposition to nuclear arms.  From 1982 to 2003, 550 cities expressed their solidarity by joining Mayors for Peace.  Since 2003, thousands of cities have been inspired to join Mayors for Peace in support of its ‘2020 Vision’ of a world free of nuclear weapon by the year 2020. The total number of citizens represented worldwide by Mayors for Peace is approaching one billion.

More information about the organization, including a complete list of the cities and mayors that are members, can be found on the Mayors for Peace website.

Tags: Mayors for Peace, Non-proliferation, Nuclear disarmament, Nuclear weapons