Vancouver City Council

MOTION ON NOTICE

Submitted by Councillor Woodsworth for the Regular Council meeting of May 18, 2004.
2. City for Peace Initiative
MOVER: Councillor Woodsworth
SECONDER: Councillor
WHEREAS Vancouver has established itself as a City of Peace and has been recognized by the United Nations as a Peace Messenger City;
AND WHEREAS the City of Vancouver is recognized for the work of its Peace and Justice Committee and the annual awarding of the Vancouver Citizen Peace Award in conjunction with the United Nations Association of Canada;
AND WHEREAS people from many different communities and citizen's groups in Vancouver have been working for decades to enable our city to help in building a safer and more peaceful world through participation in global days of action to end the arms race and abolish nuclear weapons, oppose war, and call for peaceful resolution of world conflicts;
AND WHEREAS three Nobel Prize recipients: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Doctor Shirin Ebadi have recently, at the invitation of the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, spent four days In Vancouver calling upon the World Community to build lasting Peace that respects the Human Rights of all peoples;
AND WHEREAS the 2010 Winter Olympics have been designated as an Olympics of Peace and Sustainability;
AND WHEREAS a discussion paper, "Vancouver, A City for Peace and Justice: Towards a World Peace Forum in 2006", initiated by the Vancouver's Peace and Justice Committee has received broad international support and significant initial financial commitments from interested foundations;
AND WHEREAS the City of Vancouver will host the World Urban Forum and the many related events that will be associated with it to mark the 30th Anniversary of the founding of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements and the 1976 Habitat Conference;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City of Vancouver affirms itself as a City of Peace, that will continue to participate in the Mayors for Peace initiative and the Peace Messenger Cities initiative by endorsing in principle the holding of a World Peace Forum in 2006 in conjunction with the World Urban Forum;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT Vancouver's Peace and Justice Committee be called upon to work with the international community to meet and assess the feasibility of holding a World Peace Forum in conjunction with the World Urban Forum in 2006 and report back to Vancouver City Council within six months with recommendations to hold a World Peace Forum in 2006 and to carry the Athens Olympics Peace Appeal endorsed by 187 nations forward to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

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