GLASGOW City Council has won praise for passing a resolution supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
The move, which is part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Cities Appeal, has been welcomed by the UK and Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA).
The organisation said: “As Scotland’s largest local authority and the headquarters of NFLA Scotland, we are particularly pleased it has given its strong support to a nuclear weapons free world.”
Across the world, more than 400 towns, cities, counties and federal states have passed TPNW resolutions, including Paris, Berlin, Oslo, Barcelona, Washington DC, Sydney, Amsterdam, Bruges, Geneva, Montreal, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the UK, Glasgow becomes the 20th council to pass a resolution supporting the TPNW.
The others include Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds, East Ayrshire, Fife, Lancaster, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Norwich, Oxford and Renfrewshire.
The Glasgow resolution was supported by a large cross-party majority of councillors and was tabled by the NFLA Scotland convener, Councillor Feargal Dalton, as well as being formally supported by the NFLA UK and Ireland Steering Committee vice-chair Councillor Bill Butler.
As well as the five Scottish councils who have passed a TPNW resolution, there are also six which have passed resolutions calling for their council pension funds to divest funds from fossil fuels and nuclear weapon investments. They are Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire, Fife, Midlothian, East Ayrshire and Inverclyde.
NFLA is a member of the civil society Nobel Peace Laureate and ICAN, as well as being a partner with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki-led Mayors for Peace. Plans are in place to encourage its members to support activities supporting the TPNW and encouraging divestment.
Fifty-four states have supported the TPNW – the UK is not among them – and a further 32 are in the process of ratifying it.
Dalton said: “Over the past four decades, Glasgow City Council has been a leading supporter of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities and the Mayors for Peace and its campaigns.
“I am delighted Glasgow councillors have backed this resolution.
“We also call on the UK Government to not just engage with this treaty process, but to completely reverse its current policy of increasing the number of Trident warheads stored just a few miles from Glasgow at Faslane.”
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