The Global Parliament of Mayors presented the Ukrainian mayors with the Benjamin Barber Award. This award honours mayors from all over Ukraine who bravely resist the aggression of the Russian Federation and support their communities, as reported by the Association of Ukrainian Cities.

The ceremony of the Dr. Benjamin Barber Global Cities Award 2022 was held on June 25 in Katowice, Poland, as part of the opening of the annual Global Parliament of Mayors summit.

Oleksandr Slobozhan, Executive Director of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, received the Dr. Benjamin Barber Award on behalf of Ukrainian mayors.

The award was presented by Peter Kurz, Mayor of Mannheim (Germany), and Leoluca Orlando, Mayor of Palermo (Italy).

“It is a great honour for me to accept this award as a worldwide recognition of the courage of Ukrainian mayors, as a symbol of support for their resistance to the enemy, determination to protect their communities and hard work to restore cities, towns and villages,” said Oleksandr Slobozhan.

He also noted that even though the enemy was wrecking the infrastructure of Ukrainian municipalities and destroying housing and municipal facilities, the mayors continued to work even under such difficult conditions. In addition, heads of municipalities and local self-government officials are under intense pressure from the occupiers, who threaten, abduct and torture them and their families. Since the beginning of the war, more than 50 local government officials were abducted, including 23 mayors. Four of them still remain in captivity.

The event brought together more than 50 mayors from around the world as well as representatives of international organisations such as UN-Habitat, OECD, Chicago Global Affairs Forum, etc., and many participants also joined it online.

For reference

The Global Parliament of Mayors presents the annual Dr. Benjamin Barber Award to a mayor or organisation for outstanding contributions to the development of global urban governance and the inspiration of mayors around the world.