Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson, félags- og vinnumarkaðsráðherra:

High-level Conference on the European Social Charter
Vilníus, Litháen, 4. júlí 2024

Dear friends,

The European Social Charter is a manifestation of common values.

National policies in line with the Charter increase and protect the cohesion of societies.

Unfortunately, we see signs of the alternative, distrust and unrest in today’s Europe. The Charter is important for changing that. 

First I want to mention a few initiatives in social rights policy taken in Iceland in recent years.

• We have increased governmental funding for affordable housing,
• decreased cost-sharing in the health care services,
• passed a new legislation on Children’s Prosperity
• started a new project on integrating and strengthening services of older people,
• passed a progressive reform of the Act on Termination of Pregnancy
• and a new progressive Law on Gender Autonomy.
  
  Indeed, over the past seven years, Iceland has moved from 18^th to 2^nd place on the ILGA rainbow map and to 1^st place for trans people.
  
  Also, some very recent measures from the last parliamentary session include:
  
  
• school meals for elementary school children free of charge, which is an extremely important tool in eradicating children poverty.
• the first national plan on the implementation of the Convention of Persons with Disabilities,
• a long overdue reform of the disability pension system including higher payments and more employment opportunities,
• And, finally, a law on establishing an independent National Human Rights Institute in the country.

All these measures mentioned above are important contemporary issues within social rights policy, but allow me to focus on two additional aspects:

First – the Gender Pay Gap. Research shows that the pay gap is mainly due to the gender-segregated labour market where the undervaluation of traditional women's jobs leads to the gender wage gap between occupational groups.

We are currently finding ways to fix this. We are developing a new value assessment system including a toolkit that can encompass the equal value approach to pay equity provided for in our legislation.

This means that not only the same or similar jobs are compared but different jobs that require the same or similar level of skill, responsibility, and effort.

The new system should be in place at the end of 2026.

Second – climate change.

In my opinion, climate change is the biggest welfare issue in the 21st century. The impacts of climate change manifest disproportionately across social groups and social strata.

We therefore need a just transition, working our way out of a market-centered, consumer culture that values profits over human and ecological well-being. In our struggle, dealing with this, we need to acknowledge that climate policy is also social rights policy, and act on it accordingly.

Lastly, I am happy to announce that the Icelandic Government on 21^st June accepted a proposal to ratify the revised European Social Charter.