Pressenza Pressenza International Press Agency San José, 01/12/09 The 156 new members include Australia (1), Belgium (1), Bosnia and Herzogovina (2), Cameroon (7), Costa Rica (33), Ecuador (3), France (6), Iran (1), Japan (64), Malaysia (2), Philippines (1), Portugal (1), Spain (31), UK (2) and USA (1).
With 3,396 members on December 1st Europe remains the region with most members (1,849 – 54,44%), followed by Asia (855 – 25,17%). Latin America and the Caribbean (230 – 6,77%), North-America (225 – 6,62%), Africa (141 – 4,15%) and Oceania (96 – 2,82%). For the first time Latin-America and the Caribbean count more members compared to the North-American region, this while nuclear weapons are a non-issue in the streets of the first nuclear weapon free zone. A region where small arms are viewed by many as the real WMD.
The continued growth of Mayors for Peace in Japan is very encouraging and offers increasing leverage to change the nuclear security policies promised during the election campaign by representatives of the new Japanese government.
Following the launch of Mayors for Peace in the Costa Rican national assembly on November 10th, the surge of membership in Costa Rica, promises an even stronger leadership of the national government lead by Nobel Prize laureate Oscar Arias. With its strong support for the Nuclear Weapons Convention Costa Rica is already viewed by many as the champion towards a nuclear weapon free world. Costa Rica is also respected around the world for having abolished its army in 1949 in order to invest its valuable resources in education, health and environmental protection.
The results in Costa Rica also high-light the increasing co-operation between Mayors for Peace and PNND (Parliamentarians for Non-proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament). As a direct result from the PNND annual meeting held in New York October 11-12 2009, MP Edine von Herold invited all 81 Costa Rican Mayors for a launch of Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision campaign on November 10th. In her letter to the Mayors she also urged them to join the growing movement of local governments rallying around "Cities are not targets". Almost 30 cities were represented during the meeting where the Mayor of San José and Mayors for Peace representative Pol DHuyvetter stressed the need to step up efforts 20 years after the end of the Cold War.
With 34 out of 81 Mayors on board, Costa Rica became one of the countries with the highest percentage of members (44,44%). New initiatives were discussed to increase co-operation between local governments, members of parliament and the national governement. Also the Costa Rican Association of Cities and Municipalities will be asked to support the campaign to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020.
Also the further growth in Spain with 31 new members is impressive. Vice-President Mayoral i Antigas from Granollers organized the first Spanish conference of Mayors for Peace. At the end of the conference it was decided to establish a Spanish section of Mayors for Peace to advance the 2020 Vision campaign in Spain. The Mayor of Granollers believes that the establishment of Mayors for Peace in Spain was necessary to continue membership recruitment and fund raising.
Mayors for Peace aims to count 5,000 members during the upcoming NPT Review Conference in May 2010.
