Katja Dörner, Mayor of Bonn, Belit Onay, Mayor of Hannover, and Kazumi Matsui, Mayor of Hiroshima and President of Mayors for Peace, spoke at the opening ceremony via video message.
Katja Dörner said: "I am delighted that Bonn is hosting the national conference of Mayors for Peace this year. The name Bonn stands in a special way for peace, democracy and a value-based order. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets here in the early 1980s to protest against the use of nuclear weapons. At a time when international law is increasingly being violated and a world power like Russia is waging war against a sovereign Ukraine and blatantly threatening to use nuclear weapons, it is more important than ever to work towards peaceful coexistence and to discuss how to get there".
The conference focused on the theme of peace. Professor Dr Conrad Schetter, Director of the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC), delivered a keynote speech entitled "Everyone wants peace! On the possibilities of peacemaking in times of eroding international order". Katja Dörner, Mayor of Bonn, Belit Onay, Mayor of Hanover, Professor Dr Conrad Schetter and Regina Hagen of the "atomwaffenfrei.jetzt" coalition then discussed the topic. Invited guests were able to take part in the discussion and ask the experts questions.
Mayor Belit Onay also reported on his experiences at the Third Conference of the States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in New York. Best practice examples from member cities' peace work rounded off the conference programme.
Mayors for Peace network
Mayors for Peace was founded in 1982 by the then mayor of Hiroshima. The global network focuses on the abolition of nuclear weapons, but also addresses contemporary issues to discuss ways of living together in peace. More than 8,470 cities in 166 countries belong to the network, including 900 cities in Germany. The national conference of German Mayors for Peace takes place every two years.
The City of Bonn has been a member of the Mayors for Peace network since 2009. Further information on the network at www.mayorsforpeace.de (opens in a new tab).