Report by Sean Morris, UK & Ireland Mayors for Peace Chapter Secretary
The UK and Ireland Mayors, Provosts and Leaders for Peace Chapter held its most recent meeting in Manchester on the 13th September. This joint meeting with the NFLA focused on the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons, the need for Peace Departments and the costs and risks of the UK’s nuclear weapons programme.
Keynote speaker was the ATOM Project Ambassador Karipbek Kuyukov, born close to the Semipalatinsk nuclear weapon testing site in Kazakhstan, who was born without arms, but who has become an accomplished mouth painter and a passionate nuclear disarmament campaigner. Supported by the Embassy of Kazakhstan to the UK, Karipbek also spoke at special events at the UK and Scottish Parliaments. Other speakers included Dr Becky Alexis-Martin, adviser to the British Nuclear Tests Veterans Association, Vijay Mehta of Uniting for Peace and Dave Cullen of the Nuclear Information Service.
The Chapter Secretary has produced a full report of the meeting, which also includes updates on support for the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Fife Council became the fifth UK Council and Mayors for Peace member to pass a resolution supporting the TPNW. The report also notes a forthcoming Mayors for Peace exhibition, ’50 Cities. 50 Traces’ which will be held in Manchester from 5th November to the end of January, and then in Bristol in February 2020.
>UK and Ireland Mayors for Peace Policy Briefing 25 (Nuclear Free Local Authorities website)