Blue Mountains News

Mayor, Cr Mark Greenhill said: “It is a profound honour that on behalf of Council, and the people of the Blue Mountains, we become a signatory to this inspired initiative.”

Federal Member for Macquarie, Susan Templeman, delivered the invitation to become a 'Mayor for Peace' following a UN meeting in Vienna in last year where she met with the Mayors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. 

Ms Templeman congratulated the Mayor and City for becoming a City of the movement, after the elected Council voted to become a signatory in October 2022.

“We should never forget the horrors of war and this initiative is an important reminder that we must all collectively work together to find diplomatic solutions to conflict as opposed to war,” she said.

As of 2022, Mayors for Peace has grown to have 8,240 member cities from 166 countries. In Australia, 90 Councils have already made a commitment to the movement with Blue Mountains City Council being one of the most recent to join.

The movement was established in 1982, by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki whose cities were reduced to rubble in August 1945, when two atomic bombs were dropped on them, causing the deaths of more than 210,000 people.

More than 75 years since the bombings, many survivors (known ashibakusha) still suffer from the physical and emotional aftereffects of radiation as they continue to appeal to the world that “no one else should suffer as we have”.

Since its establishment, Mayors for Peace has registered at the UN with Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and expanded its membership around the world.

For more information on Mayors for Peace go to: here.