A Global Effort To Create A Nuclear-Free World

The year 2005 will mark the 60th anniversary of the atom bomb and plans are underway to mark the occasion with a global effort to create a nuclear-free world. The Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have organized the Mayors for Peace Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons and are enrolling Mayors all over the world to join the call for negotiations to begin in 2005 on a treaty for the total elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020.

Abolition 2000, a network in over 90 countries, has launched a global Campaign, Abolition Now! calling on people all over the world to enroll their Mayors and petition their Heads of State to come to the Non-Proliferation Treaty Conference (NPT) at the UN in May, with their plans for nuclear disarmament. On December 2, the U.S. anti-war coalition United for Peace and Justice (UfPJ) teamed up with Abolition Now! to announce their plans for a massive demonstration in New York’s Central Park on May 1, 2005, the day before government officials begin the month-long conference to review the future of the NPT.

“Until there is more than a vague commitment to do the planning necessary to eliminate nuclear weapons, all our efforts at non-proliferation will be seen as simply reinforcing a global double-standard,” said Aaron Tovish, who manages the Mayor’s for Peace Campaign, an effort to solicit the support of the world’s mayors in the abolition cause. Already, over 600 mayors including more than 60 from the United States have joined the campaign. The Campaign hopes to sign up 1,000 by May and will bring a large delegation of Mayors to the NPT conference.

As long as the United States continues to build new nuclear weapons and modernize its lethal arsenal of over 10,000 bombs, the world will face increasing nuclear proliferation and a state of constant war as countries will try to acquire their own nuclear capability to deter the US. To end nuclear proliferation and the nuclear threat, all countries must plan for nuclear disarmament now!

To join the campaign or to find out how you can urge your mayor to support the call for a safer world free of nuclear weapons, visit the Abolition Now website. http://www.AbolitionNow.org/

You can sign the Abolition Now! petition, sponsored by the Council Against A and H Bombs by sending an e-mail with your contact information to, antiatom@topaz.plala.or.jp

If you are interested in enrolling your mayor in the Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons, please visit our website http://www.abolitionnow.org/mayors.html and follow these steps:

Monika Szymurska
Abolition 2000
Outreach and Development Coordinator

Abolition Now!
215 Lexington Avenue, Suite 1001
New York, NY 10016

Phone: (212) 726-9161
Fax: (212) 726-9160

E-mail: mszymurska@gracelinks.org

http://www.gracelinks.org

http://www.abolition2000.org

http://www.abolitionnow.org