Ávarp Kristrúnar Frostadóttur forsætisráðherra á viðburði Sameinuðu þjóðanna í tilefni 30 ára afmælis Peking-yfirlýsingarinnar - 22. september 2025

Excellencies.

Thirty years after the historic Beijing Conference and its ground-breaking Declaration and Platform for Action, our commitments to full gender equality have yet to be fulfilled.

We have made progress, but a gap remains - between and within societies. We must continue to remind ourselves that equal societies are healthy and resilient societies. 30 years after Beijing, we see a backlash unfolding against hard-earned progress on human rights and gender equality. This is real and deeply concerning.

Excellencies. 

I grew up with a female president – and assumed as a young girl in Reykjavik that presidents were female. I knew nothing else. Role models matter, and what we normalize matters.

In 1980, Icelanders democratically elected the world’s first female President, a few years after a women’s strike brought the country to a standstill.

The rapid rise of women’s political participation in Iceland made sure that policies such as universal childcare and shared parental leave were turned into reality. The norms changed when women moved into governing positions.  

The true victory, however, is that in Iceland gender is not a decisive factor in public life anymore. What matters is that individuals serve with competence and integrity. I lead a coalition government where all 3 party leaders are women. The leader of the opposition is a woman. So is the President of Iceland and the Speaker of Parliament. Although this is historic, it does not feel abnormal to us.

But Iceland is not perfect. Gender based violence is of great concern. And the pay gap will remain while we continue to look at caretaking jobs as low value jobs, instead of what they really are: the backbone of our society.

Excellencies. 

The burden is on all our shoulders to push for equality and change the norms across societies. So all children feel equal growing up and get equal opportunities, regardless of gender. Modern legislative action is key in areas such as childcare, labour market relations, parental leave, and LGBTQI rights.

Let this Beijing+30 anniversary be a celebration of the success we have made, but also a reminder that we have a distance still to go.