Ávarp Ásmundar Einars Daðasonar á ráðstefnu um réttindi barna í Stokkhólmi

High-level conference - celebrating the achievements in implementing legal bans on corporal punishment of children in the Baltic Sea Region

Your excellency, ministers, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a pleasure and a privilege to be invited to this conference under the theme of implementing the prohibition on corporal punishment against children. It is important to come together to learn and share ideas and best practices.

It remains a priority in the Baltic Nordic cooperation to promote children’s rights and I am also glad to see a clear focus on prevention and early intervention and that all children should be protected from any kind of violence, abuse or exploitation. To that effect, Iceland has cooperated closely with the Baltic States in the setting up of various Barnahús or Children´s Houses, based on the Icelandic model.

Since the year 1995 Iceland has had a provision in its Constitution, stating that children are entitled to the protection and care needed to ensure their welfare, a provision which has its roots in the UN Children’s Rights Convention and to some extent, the European Convention on Human Rights.

In the year 2009 however, the Supreme court in Iceland ruled on a case concerning corporal punishment of children and found that there was no violation of the General Penal Code or the Act on Child Protection, on the basis that it wasn´t clear that the violence had caused the children mental or physical harm.

This controversial ruling lead to the amendment of the Act on Children and the Act on Child Protection and we now have a full and effective ban against corporal punishment in our legislation.

Now we are very much aware of the severe consequences of violence against children. All research seems to emphasize the impact of violence against children and how it can lead to acute and serious long-term problems for children’s physical health as well as their psychological well-being. It can also create a bad cycle as children that experience violence are more likely of becoming future victims and/or acting violently themselves as adults. We want all children to grow up to be happy, healthy, strong and productive.

How are things in Iceland when it comes to children?

I have said that my plans are to make political decisions to make Iceland be the best country in the world to be a child. Even though Iceland is a strong welfare state I believe that we have to reform the welfare system based on new ideology that puts children in the forefront at all stages. Having said that, everyone must think that this sounds like a romantic unreachable fairytale from a young and inexperienced politician.

Despite my young age I have been in politics for 10 years and I have always had a vision to make a change for children and young people. When I took office as a minister of social affairs and equality in Iceland it was absolutely clear that my main focus would be the welfare of children. Now that I have a strong voice and great responsibility as a minister. I plan to use this voice, this opportunity, to take big steps. And I can say we have already started. That is not limited to preventing and fighting violence against children because research shows that we still have children in Iceland that struggle for various reasons.

To demonstrate the importance of this and how serious we are, in few weeks I will no longer be minister of social affairs and equality as the focus will formally shift by January 1^st and I will be the minister of social affairs and children. I am also glad that this will happen on 30^th anniversary year of UN convention on the rights of the child.  But why is it important to make this change? How will it change the system?

In the new ministry there will be a clear main focus on putting children in the forefront of all policymaking and financial planning, and the new ministry will also be responsible for making and following a new action plan for strengthening children’s rights in Iceland. As part of this we have already started working on new legislation regarding services to children and reforming older legislation on child protection. The plan with the new legislation is to secure early identification and early intervention. And also to secure funding for this change.

But the key thing is to get everyone on board this journey.

We have initiated co-operation between ministerial sectors – a statement of will - followed by a steering group that was signed by myself as well as the ministers of health, justice, education and the minister of local authorities as well the Icelandic Association of Local Authorities. The aim of the co-operation is to break down the walls between service providers in order to secure comprehensive and coordinated services for children. This has already started and will be led by the new ministry of children.

We have also got all political parties on board this journey as The Icelandic Parliament has agreed to join us and I have created a parliamentary committee regarding children, with members from all parties of the parliament, ensuring an intra-political approach because the welfare of children should not be a political issue. It is an issue that should unite us and we should think of as the most important investment that our society could ever make.

All this co-operation that is coordinated from my ministry has already made progress in small changes. But the bigger changes, first milestones, should be reached as soon as by autumn 2019 but we need to stay on our toes, stay informed and cooperate.

As I have already said we have started investing and are heading on a journey we hope will change how we address the welfare of children, creating successful individuals for our future society and providing positive long-term economic consequences.

Will we make it?

Eleanor Roosevelt once said: Do what you feel in your heart is right, you´ll be criticized anyway.

On this note, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak here today and want to end this by saying that we need to invest in our children and in a happy childhood free from violence, for them and for us all, and it can be done.

By saying that, our wish is that during this journey we can rely on and strengthen the Baltic Nordic cooperation in benefit of children.

Thank you.