Mayors for Peace
For a worldwide nuclear weapons ban
Send a letter to your mayor today!

Friends of the Earth has played a leading role in increasing the number of Belgian mayors who are member of the "Mayors for Peace" network.
 Click here for a model letter that you can send

In August 1945, atomic bombs instantaneously reduced the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to rubble, taking hundreds of thousands of precious lives. Today, more than fifty years after the war, thousands of citizens still suffer the devastating aftereffects of radiation and unfathomable emotional pain. To prevent any repetition of the A-bomb tragedy, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have continually sought to tell the world about the inhumane cruelty of nuclear weapons and have consistently urged that nuclear weapons be abolished.

As the primary targets of nuclear weapons, cities would be particularly affected by any future nuclear war. As the elected representatives responsible for ensuring the safety of their citizens, mayors have a particular responsibility to avert the possibility of nuclear war.

In 1982 then Mayor Takeshi Araki of Hiroshima proposed a new Program to Promote the Solidarity of Cities toward the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons. This proposal offered cities a way to transcend national borders and work together to press for nuclear abolition. Subsequently, the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki called on mayors around the world to support this program. Mayor of Laakdal, Patrik Vankrunkelsven has recently been appointed as a vice-president of the Mayor for Peace network.

The Mayors For Peace network is currently promoting the "Vision for 2020" Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons, proposed by the mayor of Hiroshima, Mr. Tadatoshi Akiba. This campaign aims to have a treaty banning all nuclear weapons signed and ratified by 2010, leading to a nuclear-weapon-free-world by the year 2020. To promote this campaign, Mayor Akiba visited Belgium, and the European Parliament in 2005.

The Mayors for Peace network is composed of cities around the world that have formally expressed support for the program Mayor Araki announced in 1982. As of August 6th 2005, global membership stood at 1,080 cities in 112 countries and regions. In Belgium, there are currently 321 member cities and communities. This represents almost half of the total of Belgian mayors.

You can help increase this number by sending a letter to your mayor.
 Click here for a template letter

If your mayor is already a member of the network, you can suggest that they take action in one of 9 possible ways.
 Top 20 possibilities for Mayors for Peace to take action