Iceland

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 10-54965 54 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.