Report by Evelyn Kamissek, Office for International Affairs, the City of Hannover
On July 8, the Mayors for Peace flag was hoisted in front of many town halls in over 350 German cities. The Flag Day, an annual initiative by German members of Mayors for Peace since 2012, is a reminder of a legal opinion handed down by the International Court of Justice on July 8, 1996, concluding that even the threat of using nuclear weapons is an offence against international law. Flying the flag on this day signifies opposition to nuclear weapons and hope for a peaceful world.
Mayor Belit Onay of Hannover, a Vice-President City of Mayors for Peace and the Lead City of the German Chapter explains: “75 years after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, some 13,400 nuclear weapons still threaten humankind. Nuclear arms control is in a deep crisis. We must therefore take the nuclear threat as seriously as climate change in the future. We, Mayors for Peace, are committed to the worldwide abolition of nuclear weapons. We call for the accession of all states, including the nuclear powers, to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted at the United Nations in 2017.”
The celebration in the great hall of the New City Hall marked the beginning of the event series Peace 2020+ of the City of Hannover on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Flag Day also included an interactive presentation “On the way to Global Zero” on milestones in nuclear disarmament efforts. Representatives of the Council, the Hiroshima Alliance, the German-Japanese Society, the German-Japanese Friendship Circle, the Peace Bureau Hannover and other civil society actors took part in the event.
Related story on the German Mayors for Peace website in German