May 2015
The UN Millennium Declaration was adopted at the United Nations’ Millennium Summit in September 2000, setting out a series of targets with a deadline of the end of 2015 that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). With the deadline of the MDGs fast approaching, international discussions to formulate a new set of international development goals beyond 2015, called “the Post-2015 Development Agenda” , are underway. In July this year, the Third UN Conference on Financing for Development will take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss financing for the Post-2015 Development Agenda and its implementation.
The World Future Council, an NGO that aims to pass on a healthy planet and just societies to the future generations through participation in decision-making processes, and the International Peace Bureau, one of the most prestigious NGOs dedicated to peace, released a common position paper emphasizing the need for UN Member States to reduce their military spending and reallocate those resources to fund the Sustainable Development Goals as well as tackle climate change; in this way, development and disarmament can proceed hand in hand. The two organizations requested endorsements from other organizations committed to peace.
As efforts to reduce military expenditures by each country would contribute to the disarmament and reduction of nuclear arms, which correspond to the objectives of Mayors for Peace, Mayors for Peace has decided to endorse this position paper.
>World Future Council website
>International Peace Bureau website