×

News

Mayors for Peace presents the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol in Geneva

by Hiromi Morita, Staff Writer

On May 4, 2008, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, who is also President of Mayors for Peace, expressed his intention to initiate a campaign that will urge national governments around the world to approve the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol through the support of member cities of Mayors for Peace. The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, complementing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, was designed to detail a path that the international community can follow for achieving a nuclear-weapon-free world by the year 2020.

The protocol was presented by Mayors for Peace at the second PrepCom for the 2010 NPT Review Conference and was held at the end of April in Geneva, Switzerland. Upon returning from the trip, Mayor Akiba called a press conference and emphasized, “We are seeking as many endorsements as possible from the cities of the world in order to put pressure on their national governments.” Mayors for Peace hopes to have this protocol adopted at a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly in September 2009.

At a session of the PrepCom on April 29, Mayors for Peace explained the object of the protocol and representatives of national governments heard the views of NGOs in the field. The representatives of Mexico and other nations, which promote nuclear disarmament, were said to have responded favorably to the protocol, calling it a “meaningful effort.”

Archives