Ávarp Katrínar Jakobsdóttur forsætisráðherra á 65. fundi kvennanefndar Sameinuðu þjóðanna 18. mars 2021
Honourable chair.
Social justice is a precondition to sustainable development. It's impossible to have the latter without the former.
Therefore, the link between women’s empowerment and sustainable development, the link to the future well-being of our planet, is obvious.
Gender equality is about social justice and human rights. That is why a stand-alone goal, the SDG5, focuses exclusively on improving the status and rights of women and girls worldwide. Other goals will not be achieved unless gender equality is realised. As we strive to reach the goals of the 2030 Agenda, Iceland welcomes the opportunity to review our efforts towards gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, in all their diversity.
The global pandemic of COVID-19 has taught us many important lessons. For instance, the need to have a good health care system which ensures equal access for every person. We´ve also seen the importance of a robust and comprehensive social system supporting those who have suffered economic hardship. Throughout this pandemic we have experienced some of the best qualities of our societies; cooperation, solidarity, empathy, scientific brilliance and the strength of the human spirit. We have also seen how vulnerable the gains we have made toward gender equality truly are. And moving forward we must make it our mission to safeguard the fundamental human rights of women and girls.
We must ensure the full and effective participation of women in decision-making in public life. Women are still underrepresented in these areas, most parliaments remain male-dominated, with a worldwide average of only 25 percent women. Globally, we are far from reaching full equality in the workforce and women are too often absent or underrepresented at the highest levels of the corporate world. Gender balance in employment is essential to women’s financial independence. This is key to ending gender inequalities, including violence against women. But for women to take equal part in the labor market, we must create the conditions that enable them to do so.
Whenever we seek to end structural inequalities, we need to apply a structural approach. When it comes to gender equality we have many tools for this – paid parental leave, subsidised childcare, laws to close the gender pay gap – and, by the way, none of these issues were major political issues until women became involved in politics. That is why we must strive for more gender-balanced political representation, as this results in better policies for women, and, by extension, for society as a whole.
Another key issue for ending gender inequalities is securing women´s full sexual and reproductive health and rights. In 2019, Iceland passed a progressive abortion legislation, ensuring women self-determination over their bodies. Iceland has also adopted a new Act on Gender Autonomy, allowing individuals to determine their gender registration regardless of sex characteristics, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
We will continue to build policies to end all forms of gender-based and sexual violence. We must ensure that our policies protect all women from violence, harassment and discrimination, taking into account an intersectional approach.
My government has introduced new plans and legislations aiming to end sexual and gender-based violence and sexual harrassment. Cross-sectoral preventive policies play a key role, with measures to increase education whithin the school system at all levels, and raise awarness and understanding in society. The increase in online gender-based violence has been met by legislative changes on violations on sexual and privacy violations in the General Penal Code.
Iceland is proud to be a co-leader of the gender-based violence action coalition in the UN Women’s Generation Equality Forum. We are proud to partake in this important work to accelerate the implementation of global commitments to gender equality.
We all have a duty to ourselves and to future generations to prioritize gender equality. This will both strengthen our societies and move us closer to a socially just and sustainable world.