Outline, Mission, Structure
What is the Mayors for Peace?
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 seventy 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.
On June 24, 1982, at the 2nd UN Special Session on Disarmament held at UN Headquarters in New York, 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.
The Mayors for Peace is composed of cities around the world that have formally expressed support for the program Mayor Araki announced in 1982. We were registered as a NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in May 1991.
Mission
The Mayors for Peace, through close cooperation among the cities, strives to raise international public awareness regarding the need to abolish nuclear weapons and contributes to the realization of genuine and lasting world peace by working to eliminate starvation and poverty, assist refugees fleeing local conflict, support human rights, protect the environment, and solve the other problems that threaten peaceful coexistence within the human family.
Structure
At present, the Conference is composed of 7,453 cities in 162 countries and regions around the world. (See Members List)
Our 26 executive cities are:
| President | Mayor of Hiroshima (Japan) |
| Vice President | Mayor of Nagasaki (Japan) |
| Vice President | Lord Mayor of Hannover (Germany) |
| Vice President | Mayor of Volgograd (Russia) |
| Vice President | Mayor of Malakoff (France) |
| Vice President | Mayor of Muntinlupa (Philippines) |
| Vice President | Lord Mayor of Manchester (U.K.) |
| Vice President | Mayor of Ypres (Belgium) |
| Vice President | Mayor of Biograd na Moru (Croatia) |
| Vice President | Mayor of Granollers (Spain) |
| Vice President | Mayor of Halabja (Iraq) |
| Vice President | Mayor of Fongo-Tongo (Cameroon) |
| Vice President | Mayor of Mexico City (Mexico) |
| Vice President | Mayor of Frogn（Norway) |
| Vice President | Mayor of Des Moines (U.S.A.) |
| Executive | Governor of Bangkok (Thailand) |
| Executive | Mayor of Fremantle (Australia) |
| Executive | Mayor of Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) |
| Executive | Mayor of Semey (Kazakhstan) |
| Executive | Mayor of Cochin (India) |
| Executive | Mayor of Montreal (Canada) |
| Executive | Mayor of Wellington (New Zealand) |
| Executive | Mayor of Santos (Brazil) |
| Executive | Mayor of Cartago (Costa Rica) |
| Executive | Mayor of Tehran (Iran) |
| Executive | Mayor of Grigny (France) |
Covenant of the Mayors for Peace
In August, 1945, the first nuclear weapons ever used in human history caused an indescribable catastrophe for the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even now a number of A-bomb survivors are still suffering physically, psychologically, and socially from various after-effects.
Nevertheless, nuclear weapons have not been abolished; they continue to threaten human existence. Our goal is to maintain environments that enable citizens to lead safe, cultural lives, and to contribute to the attainment of lasting world peace. To this end, we pledge to make every effort to create an inter-city solidarity transcending national boundaries and ideological differences in order to achieve the total abolition of nuclear weapons and avert the recurrence of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki tragedies.
We agree to the intent of the “Program to Promote Solidarity of Cities towards the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons” proposed by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Furthermore, we hope that the “World Conference of Mayors for Peace through Inter-city Solidarity,” which held its first session in August of 1985, shall become a permanent organization. Accordingly, we do hereby establish an organization to be known as the “Mayors for Peace”.