Iceland, 2010

Let me start by

congratulating His Excellency Mr. Joseph Deiss on his

election to the presidency at the sixty-fifth session of

the General Assembly, and assuring him of the fullest

cooperation of the Icelandic delegation.

When I spoke for the first time from this

distinguished rostrum last year, my country was

ravaged by financial crisis. It left Iceland with a total

collapse of the entire banking system. Our financial

crisis was exacerbated by the worldwide recession, but

I have to tell you, honestly, that to a large extent it was

made in Iceland. It was the product of a system that

embraced the neo-liberalistic view of rampant

capitalism with lax regulations. Economic emergency

laws had to be passed. And we needed the helping hand

of our close family in the North, the Nordic nations,

not least the Faroese, and our friends the Poles, in the

form of currency loans, just to prevent our society from

melting down.

Now we have swallowed the bitter medicine of

fiscal cuts and radical financial reforms. We have

embarked on close cooperation with the International

Monetary Fund. And Iceland has now applied for

membership of the European Union, on which the

Icelandic people will decide in a referendum in due

course.

A specially appointed prosecutor is now handling

the cases of bankers who allegedly broke the law, and

this week, parliament in Iceland is debating whether to

prosecute former ministers. So we took firm, decisive

action.

Well, I can tell you, the medicine worked. Iceland

is pulling through. We are finally on the road to

recovery. We are blessed with ample resources in the

form of fish in the ocean, the fierce power of our

waterfalls and geothermal geysers and a pristine

natural environment that supports a flourishing tourism

sector. Economic growth is, finally, returning to

Iceland.

I am therefore very happy to inform the Assembly

that, this summer, the International Monetary Fund

declared that, technically, the recession in Iceland is

over. I want to use this opportunity to thank Member

States for their support and their understanding.

The crisis turned our eyes back to what really

matters in life, the core values of democracy and

human rights. At home, we have taken important steps

to change the Constitution to increase the people’s

power. We are also proud of having legally ensured full

equality for same-sex partnerships, and we strongly

urge other nations to remove all discrimination based

on sexual orientation.

As the Assembly knows, our foreign policy has

always reflected the high priority we place on gender

equality. This year, we celebrate 95 years since women

first gained the right to vote and 30 years ago since a

woman was first elected President in Iceland. As

members saw for themselves, with their own eyes,

when the Icelandic Prime Minister spoke here this

week, the Icelandic Government is now led by a

woman.

In New York, we also have cause to celebrate.

Iceland for years has supported a new and consolidated

United Nations gender entity, and, look, today it is a

reality. Well done, United Nations, you deserve a big

pile of thanks for your vision and for your courage. I

can state that Iceland will be a strong supporter of UN

Women, just as we have been through the transitional

phase.

There is also, I believe, another cause for this

Assembly to celebrate, and that is the fact that next

month we will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of

resolution 1325 (2000). This has been a priority of the

foreign policy of Iceland. Let the nations of the United

Nations come together to celebrate by increasing the

participation of women in peace negotiations.

Empowering women is empowering society.

But it is exactly with reference to women’s rights

that we have learned with utter sadness about the

decision of Iranian courts to stone to death an Iranian

woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. President

Ahmadinejad, on behalf of the Icelandic people, I ask

you to spare Ashtiani.

When we address the looming dangers of climate

change, human rights are also at stake. Climate change

will wreak havoc on the lives of a great number of

people. It will erode what we as an international

community have defined as their basic human rights.

Let me take three different examples. The small

island nations in the Pacific are threatened by rising

sea levels to such an extent that whole nations might be

forced to leave the land of their forebears — Kiribati,

for instance. The floods in Pakistan caused death to

many and devastation to tens of millions of people. The

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melting of the Arctic ice may prevent my neighbours,

the Inuits, from pursuing their traditional lifestyle

based on hunting on the ice.

All this is aggravated by the limitless use of fossil

fuels that is literally tipping the delicate balance of

nature. We, the wealthy nations of the world, are

therefore paying for the quality of our good life with

the human rights of others. If we do not take drastic

action, more radical action than what was agreed in

Copenhagen, future generations will see ours as serial

offenders against the human rights of peoples in need.

At the same time, millions of people lack access

to safe drinking water and sanitation. It is a firm

position of my Government that the right to safe

drinking water and basic sanitation should be

recognized as a human right, essential for the real and

full enjoyment of life and all other human rights.

In the fight against climate change, Iceland tries

to lead by example. We already meet 80 per cent of our

energy needs through renewables, and that is far higher

than any other nation can claim. We have campaigned

for a new global climate fund with the goal of

financing the transfer of green technologies to

developing countries.

But we in Iceland also want to contribute in

another way. As the Assembly knows, we have not

been able to stop the volcanoes in Iceland from

erupting with huge clouds of ash, but we have learned

to harness the fierce power of the fire beneath, and put

it to use as geothermal energy. Geothermal by itself, of

course, will not solve all the climate problems, but in

some parts of the world it could make a huge

difference.

In East Africa, the utilization of geothermal

potential could free the people of several nations from

the bondage of energy poverty. They do, however, lack

the geothermal expertise and the finances for the

infrastructure.

Iceland, therefore, has formally engaged in

discussions with some of the big nations operating, for

example, in East Africa to form a partnership for a

geothermal drive in countries with unused potential.

Iceland would put up the expertise, the partners the

necessary financing. This initiative could enable some

countries to escape from energy poverty, industrialize

without undue emissions and embark on the road to

prosperity.

I have spent almost this entire speech of mine

tonight talking about human rights in one form or

another, and human rights cannot be debated without

discussing the plight of the Palestinians and the people

of Gaza. We now have the results of the experts,

mandated by the Human Rights Council, who

concluded that Israel broke international law by

attacking the flotilla bringing humanitarian assistance

to Gaza last spring.

Iceland has strongly condemned the raid. It drew

a strong reaction from Icelandic society at large. I can

tell the Assembly that the Icelandic nation is deeply

sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians, held in

occupation by an oppressing Power. As I speak, we

have Icelandic humanitarian workers being held up in

Israel, trying to bring prosthetic feet to people in Gaza

who have lost their limbs, people that urgently need

assistance. This is not acceptable to Iceland. This is not

acceptable to the world. This is inhuman and unjust,

and we urge Israel not to prevent humanitarian

assistance from reaching the needy in Gaza.

Yesterday, we heard President Obama urge

patience, but we also heard a hidden hope in his words.

Well, we know that sometimes dreams come true.

Sometimes the unexpected happens. Sometimes we

even have miracles. We in Iceland will, of course,

strongly support the resumed direct talks, and let us all

hope and pray for a solution that will allow us, as soon

as possible, to welcome the independent State of

Palestine as the 193rd member of the United Nations

family.

In the meantime, all of us should use every

possible, sensible way to demonstrate our solidarity

with the people of Palestine. My country, Iceland, was

not afraid to stand up and be counted on behalf of the

people in the Baltic States almost 20 years ago, when

Iceland was the first country to break the ice and

recognize their independence. The same happened with

regard to Croatia, Slovenia and later Montenegro. And

today Iceland is not afraid to stand up for the

Palestinian people either. Every nation has a duty to

defend human rights. Every nation has a duty to speak

up. That is no less true for Palestine, where human

rights are broken — especially in Gaza — every day.