No resolution to promote Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol submitted to the UN
Oct. 20, 2009
by Uzaemonnaotsuka Tokai, Staff Writer
Mayors for Peace, for which Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba serves as president, is advocating the abolition of nuclear weapons by 2020. However, the organization was unable to submit a resolution to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (Disarmament and International Security) that would call for the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol to be treated as an urgent matter at the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference. Mayors for Peace failed to find a nation willing to introduce the resolution by the deadline of October 16.
Mayors for Peace aims to have the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, which provides a road map toward nuclear abolition by the year 2020, adopted at the NPT Review Conference next May. Though the UN General Assembly will not have a direct impact on a vote at the NPT Review Conference this time, Mayors for Peace had sought to submit the resolution on the grounds that: 1) if the resolution was adopted at the UN, it would encourage nuclear abolition and 2) a vote on the protocol at the UN would clarify the positions of nations as to whether these nations support nuclear abolition or not, which would facilitate the approach of Mayors for Peace at the NPT Review Conference.
According to the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, where the headquarters of Mayors for Peace is based, the organization intended to jointly submit the resolution with multiple nations, including the United States and nations in South America and Europe.
The foundation believes that some nations feel they are unable to assume responsibility for the contents of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, even though they support the idea of nuclear abolition. Mayors for Peace will now do its utmost to increase the number of its member cities, already exceeding 3,100, and secure nations willing to introduce the protocol to the NPT Review Conference.
(Originally published on October 17, 2009)
Mayors for Peace, for which Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba serves as president, is advocating the abolition of nuclear weapons by 2020. However, the organization was unable to submit a resolution to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (Disarmament and International Security) that would call for the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol to be treated as an urgent matter at the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference. Mayors for Peace failed to find a nation willing to introduce the resolution by the deadline of October 16.
Mayors for Peace aims to have the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, which provides a road map toward nuclear abolition by the year 2020, adopted at the NPT Review Conference next May. Though the UN General Assembly will not have a direct impact on a vote at the NPT Review Conference this time, Mayors for Peace had sought to submit the resolution on the grounds that: 1) if the resolution was adopted at the UN, it would encourage nuclear abolition and 2) a vote on the protocol at the UN would clarify the positions of nations as to whether these nations support nuclear abolition or not, which would facilitate the approach of Mayors for Peace at the NPT Review Conference.
According to the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, where the headquarters of Mayors for Peace is based, the organization intended to jointly submit the resolution with multiple nations, including the United States and nations in South America and Europe.
The foundation believes that some nations feel they are unable to assume responsibility for the contents of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, even though they support the idea of nuclear abolition. Mayors for Peace will now do its utmost to increase the number of its member cities, already exceeding 3,100, and secure nations willing to introduce the protocol to the NPT Review Conference.
(Originally published on October 17, 2009)
