On Monday, October 27, 2008, Mayor Akiba of the City of Hiroshima and President of Mayors for Peace visited UN Headquarters in New York and submitted some of the 370,221 collected signatures for the petition "Cities Are Not Targets (CANT)", which calls for nuclear arsenals to no longer target cities and the elimination of all the nuclear weapons, to H.E. Mr. Miguel d‘Escoto Brockmann,  President of the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly. The mayor appealed to the UNGA president that abolition of nuclear weapons is a common wish among people around the world. Mayor Akiba also explained about the "Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol", which stipulates a process leading toward the total abolition of nuclear weapons by the year 2020 and asked for UN's cooperation in facilitating good-faith efforts by the nuclear-weapon states and other national governments based on the Protocol.

* Since the CANT petition drive will continue, your continued support is deeply appreciated.