TITLE
Recommendation to respectfully request City Attorney to draft a resolution to reaffirm the City's support of the Mayors for Peace vision of eliminating nuclear weapons by the year 2020.
DISCUSSION
On June 24, 1982, at the 2nd United Nations (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. The proposal came out of the dropping of two atomic bombs in 1945 on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that to this day still has devastating effects on the people who survived. It 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 this program. The vision is to have total abolition of nuclear weapons by the year 2020. In 2005, the City of Long Beach officially became a member-city of the Mayors for Peace. The hallmark of the 2020 Vision Campaign has been the cooperation between mayors and civil society leaders. Website address: http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/index.html
The Mayors for Peace program is currently asking all member-cities to reaffirm their dedication to the total elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020. Please see attached for a complete list of all member-cities in the United States.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Approve recommendation.
Respectfully Submitted,
COUNCILMEMBER SUJA LOWENTHAL
SECOND DISTRICT
VICE MAYOR VAL LERCH
COUNCILMEMBER, NINTH DISTRICT