Mayors for Peace to call on nations to participate in U.N. working group to promote nuclear disarmament
Jan. 22, 2016
by Kyokuke Mizukawa, Staff Writer
Mayors for Peace will send an appeal to the nations of the world before the establishment of a U.N. working group to discuss measures for nuclear disarmament, including legal provisions. The plan was made public by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, who also serves as the president of the organization, at a press conference on January 15. Because the nuclear powers are opposed to the resolution for forming a working group under the U.N. General Assembly, they are not expected to participate in this group. Mayors for Peace will urge them to engage in dialogue with the non-nuclear states to advance the elimination of nuclear weapons.
The Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, which serves as the secretariat of Mayors for Peace, expects the working group to begin its discussions in February. Last December, the resolution to establish such a group was supported by 138 nations, but not by the five major nuclear weapon states, including the United States. Japan abstained from voting. Mr. Matsui said, “We will dispatch to the world our message that the international community should respect the wishes of the people of the member cities, who want a world without nuclear weapons to be realized, and that both the nuclear and non-nuclear nations should be part of the discussions in the working group.”
The appeal will soon be sent to the 193 U.N. member states via email under the joint signatures of the mayors of the 26 executive cities of Mayors for Peace. It will also be sent to the 6,965 member cities (as of January 1, 2016) of the organization, requesting that they encourage their national governments to join the working group.
Mr. Matsui also offered information on the preparations for the meeting of foreign ministers scheduled to take place in Hiroshima in April ahead of the Group of Seven (G7) summit (Ise Shima summit). He explained that a council composed of public and private entities will help the participants with hotel accommodations and make posters and banners.
(Originally published on January 16, 2016)
Mayors for Peace will send an appeal to the nations of the world before the establishment of a U.N. working group to discuss measures for nuclear disarmament, including legal provisions. The plan was made public by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, who also serves as the president of the organization, at a press conference on January 15. Because the nuclear powers are opposed to the resolution for forming a working group under the U.N. General Assembly, they are not expected to participate in this group. Mayors for Peace will urge them to engage in dialogue with the non-nuclear states to advance the elimination of nuclear weapons.
The Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, which serves as the secretariat of Mayors for Peace, expects the working group to begin its discussions in February. Last December, the resolution to establish such a group was supported by 138 nations, but not by the five major nuclear weapon states, including the United States. Japan abstained from voting. Mr. Matsui said, “We will dispatch to the world our message that the international community should respect the wishes of the people of the member cities, who want a world without nuclear weapons to be realized, and that both the nuclear and non-nuclear nations should be part of the discussions in the working group.”
The appeal will soon be sent to the 193 U.N. member states via email under the joint signatures of the mayors of the 26 executive cities of Mayors for Peace. It will also be sent to the 6,965 member cities (as of January 1, 2016) of the organization, requesting that they encourage their national governments to join the working group.
Mr. Matsui also offered information on the preparations for the meeting of foreign ministers scheduled to take place in Hiroshima in April ahead of the Group of Seven (G7) summit (Ise Shima summit). He explained that a council composed of public and private entities will help the participants with hotel accommodations and make posters and banners.
(Originally published on January 16, 2016)
