Photo credit: Back from the Brink
L – R: Takehiro Kagawa, Secretary General, Mayors for Peace; Mayor Belit Onay, Hannover, Germany; Mayor Malik Evans, Rochester, New York; Alderwoman Maria Hadden, Chicago City Council, Illinois
Mayors for Peace was pleased to co-sponsor a side event and reception on March 4 during the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. “The Role of Cities in the Promotion of Nuclear Disarmament,” was sponsored by the Austrian Permanent Mission to the United Nations. Other co-sponsors were the Back from the Brink campaign, Northwestern University, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and Physicians for Social Responsibility.
The events were convened by Professor Hirokazu Miyazaki of Northwestern University, who is conducting research on municipal efforts for nuclear disarmament and nuclear justice. A roundtable discussion featured George-Wilhelm Gallhofer, Austrian Foreign Ministry; Takehiro Kagawa, Secretary General, Mayors for Peace; Mayor Belit Onay, Hannover, Germany; Mayor Malik Evans, Rochester, New York; Mayor Nicole LaChappelle, Easthampton, Massachusetts; Alderwoman Maria Hadden, Chicago City Council, Illinois; and Francesco Vignarca, Campaigns Coordinator, the Italian Peace and Disarmament Network. Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki participated via video.
The reception which followed featured speakers from the roundtable as well as U.S. nuclear disarmament campaigners. Baltimore, Maryland Comptroller Bill Henry, and California Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry participated via video.
Both events drew capacity audiences and provided an opportunity to learn from local elected officials about how and why they decided to get involved in promoting nuclear disarmament, and to examine the key role of local grassroots organizing during this time of rising global tensions and uncertainty.
Click here for Back from the Brink’s report with photos, quotes, and videos from the side event and reception.
Click here for Professor Miyazaki’s Mapping Nuclear Legacies project.
