Iceland’s Foreign Minister delivers a blunt message at the United Nations, invoking the phrase “moral cowards” while addressing leaders who refuse to negotiate peace, restrict humanitarian aid, and disregard international law. Her remarks come amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza war and growing international debate over humanitarian access, accountability and a two-state solution.
Watch the full report for the Iceland FM’s remarks on Israel, Gaza, Netanyahu, humanitarian aid, international law and peace negotiations.
#Iceland #IcelandFM #Netanyahu #Israel #Gaza #IsraelGazaWar #UN #UNGA #UnitedNations #GazaWar #HumanitarianAid #InternationalLaw #BreakingNews #WorldNews
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Watch the full report for the Iceland FM’s remarks on Israel, Gaza, Netanyahu, humanitarian aid, international law and peace negotiations.
#Iceland #IcelandFM #Netanyahu #Israel #Gaza #IsraelGazaWar #UN #UNGA #UnitedNations #GazaWar #HumanitarianAid #InternationalLaw #BreakingNews #WorldNews
~HT.318~PR.462~ED.532~GR.506~VG.HM~
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NewsTranscript
00:00We have heard the words moral cowards from this podium.
00:05To me, moral cowards are those who refuse to sit down,
00:10those leaders of the world who refuse to sit down and negotiate just and lasting peace,
00:17those leaders who deny access to humanitarian aid for people in desperate need
00:22and moral cowards are those leaders of the world who repeatedly go against and disrespect international law.
00:33Madame President, Excellencies, dear friends,
00:37The United Nations was born from a harsh lesson of history.
00:41The generation of 1945 had learned a terrible course that while states can choose their actions,
00:48they cannot control all the consequences they set in motion.
00:53That lesson is painfully relevant today.
00:57We are living through a period of profound uncertainty.
01:01Power is shifting, conflicts are multiplying and there is a growing tendency
01:06to treat the rules and institutions of the international system as constraints belonging to another age.
01:13But the United Nations was built precisely for times of uncertainty,
01:19to bring rules and restraints to an unpredictable world and to prevent conflict from descending into catastrophe.
01:29The task of our generation is both to preserve the institutions built by those that came before us
01:37and also to remember the hard-earned wisdom on which they rest.
01:44Today, that wisdom and the United Nations, that embodies it, is under enormous pressure.
01:52Madame President, this year marks 80 years since Iceland joined the United Nations.
02:00For eight decades, Iceland has held that a small state, a small state should enjoy the same protection,
02:08same rights and voice as a powerful one.
02:11That idea matters more today, not less.
02:15Despite its shortcomings, the United Nations has mattered and it has mattered a lot.
02:21UN peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations have helped prevent and contain conflict around the world.
02:30The Universal Declaration of Human Rights transformed our understanding of human dignity.
02:37The Convention on the Law of the Sea became the Constitution of the Ocean on which countries like mine depend,
02:45now strengthened further by the BBNJ agreement.
02:49The International Court of Justice has helped states settle disputes by peaceful means through law rather than force.
02:59And the International Criminal Court was created to ensure accountability for the most serious crimes.
03:07The United Nations has advanced gender equality, fought racism and discrimination, delivered humanitarian assistance,
03:17and helped countries build more peaceful and also prosperous societies.
03:23But loyalty to the United Nations cannot mean pretending that everything works perfectly.
03:30Bureaucracy can be cumbersome, decisions slow and resources fragmented.
03:35The Security Council entrusted with maintaining international peace and security has too often been paralyzed when action was needed most.
03:47Too often the veto has become a shield against action rather than a tool for preserving peace.
03:55So yes, the United Nations needs reform.
04:00And Iceland fully supports the UNAT reform process.
04:05We need a United Nations that uses resources effectively and responds quickly when people need it.
04:13United Nations that delivers for all.
04:16The deeper challenge, however, is political.
04:20The strength of the United Nations depends on our willingness to uphold the principles and wisdom on which they were
04:29founded.
04:31Madam President, the most basic rules of international relations are being tested.
04:38Not because we no longer know them. We do.
04:41But because increasingly governments apply them selectively, meaning that international law applies until it becomes inconvenient.
04:52That court decisions must be respected unless they challenge our own actions or those of our friends.
05:00That sovereignty is sacred unless someone else's territory stands in the way of our ambitions.
05:09We cannot build courts, celebrate them when they prosecute our enemies and undermine them when they turn their attention to
05:18our friends.
05:19When grave violations go unanswered, they are more likely to be repeated.
05:24And for small states, this is existential. Not simply a matter of principle. Not at all.
05:33Russia's brutal war against Ukraine is a clear example.
05:39Russia invaded a sovereign neighbour, seeking to change borders by force and deny another nation to freedom to determine its
05:49future.
05:50Ukrainians have paid an unimaginable price.
05:55Behind every destroyed home is a family. Behind every casualty is someone who was loved.
06:03Iceland's position remains clear, very clear. Ukraine has the right to defend itself to sovereignty and territorial integrity and to
06:13adjust and lasting peace on the basis of international law.
06:18Our support for Ukraine defends a principle on which all our country's security depends.
06:26That no nation, no nation gets to decide the future of another.
06:32This principle must apply everywhere, including in the Middle East.
06:36In Gaza, we continue to witness repeated violations of the ceasefire and continued suffering among civilians, despite the adoption of
06:46the 20-point Comprehensive Peace Plan and Security Council Resolution 2803.
06:53The suffering of Palestinian civilians cannot become a background noise.
07:00Children are still being killed. Families are still losing their homes.
07:05And parents are still trying to keep their children alive. Again and again and again.
07:12We cannot accept Gaza being repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt while the underlying course remains unresolved.
07:22And in the West Bank, illegal settlement activity continues to expand.
07:27Palestinian civilians face settler violence too often enabled by impunity, inflammatory rhetoric and permissive policies.
07:37Earlier this month, Iceland joined 11 other states in addressing restriction on trading goods from settlements that are illegal under
07:47international law.
07:48Our objective remains clear. A viable Palestinian state alongside Israel with both peoples, both peoples able to live in security,
08:01dignity and peace.
08:05We have heard the words moral cowards from this podium.
08:10To me, moral cowards are those who refuse to sit down.
08:16Those leaders of the world who refuse to sit down and negotiate just and lasting peace.
08:22Those leaders who deny access to humanitarian aid for people in desperate need.
08:28And moral cowards are those leaders of the world who repeatedly go against and disrespect international law.
08:45Madam President, we must not allow the horrors in Ukraine and the Middle East to make other crises invisible.
08:53In Sudan, years of civil war have brought atrocities, mass displacement and grave violation of international humanitarian law.
09:02As humanitarian leaders have reminded us, Sudan does not suffer from a lack of analysis. It suffers from a lack
09:11of action.
09:11The acts that may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity cannot be met with indifference.
09:19We created the International Criminal Court to ensure accountability for the most serious crimes.
09:26So does accountability matters. We have to bear that in mind.
09:31And so does adherence to international law beyond the battlefield.
09:36To be clear, Iceland stands with the ICC.
09:40Obstruction of lawful international transit through the Straits of Hormuz and Babel Mandeb threatens not only countries in the region,
09:50but global energy markets and food security.
09:54Disruption falls hardest on the most vulnerable.
09:57The freedom codified in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are not optional. Not at all.
10:05And for an island nation dependent on open maritime routes, freedom of navigation is fundamental.
10:13Madam President, 75 years after the 1951 Refugee Convention, we should have hoped that the need for it would be
10:21diminishing.
10:22Instead, humanitarian needs and forced displacement have reached staggering levels.
10:29Conflicts, poverty, drought, natural disasters and the growing effects of climate change are pushing millions of people from their homes.
10:40And just as needs are increasing, funding is falling.
10:44With development, cooperation and humanitarian assistance, we are investing in stability.
10:52We are investing in resilience and peace.
10:55It is not charity offered when times are good.
10:59Cutting ODA is short-sighted and risks making instability, displacement and conflict worse.
11:06The cost will eventually reach us all.
11:10We must not allow today's crisis to push the sustainable development goals aside.
11:16Iceland will not.
11:18We also must not forget how much progress has been driven by the economic freedom.
11:24Perhaps humanity's greatest gift is our capacity to create, to imagine something that doesn't exist and then bring it into
11:36being.
11:38Creativity is universal.
11:40What differs is whether societies give it room to flourish.
11:46Open, free markets have given people the opportunity, namely to create, exchange ideas, take risks and build better lives for
11:56themselves and for others.
12:00Madam President, another battle is taking place over what kind of societies we want to be.
12:08Across the world, authoritarianism and political extremism are gaining ground.
12:15We see attacks on democratic institutions, independent media, science and facts in public debate.
12:23Too often, these movements target groups whose rights supposedly matter less.
12:30Women, LGBTQI plus people, minorities, migrants, people who look different, love differently or live differently.
12:42These are not abstract groups.
12:45They are our daughters.
12:48They are our sons, our friends, our neighbours, our colleagues.
12:53I am deeply concerned by the growing backlash against gender equality and LGBTQI plus rights, including within my own region,
13:03Europe.
13:03We hear that equality has gone too far, that diversity has gone too far, that some people demanding the freedom
13:12simply to be themselves, somehow threaten the freedom of others.
13:17I reject that completely.
13:19Human rights are not a zero sum game.
13:22Giving a woman equal rights does not take away rights from a man.
13:30Allowing an LGBTQI plus person to live freely does not make anyone else less free.
13:39Quite the opposite.
13:40We should be very careful when governments begin telling us that some people's existence threatens society.
13:48History has taught us where that can lead.
13:53And let me be clear, Iceland will not allow others to define our values or dictate the language we use
14:01to defend human rights.
14:04Free societies are strongest when people are allowed to be themselves.
14:09But freedom that belongs only to people who fit someone else's definition of normal is not freedom.
14:18A society that strips people of their dignity will eventually undermine its own democracy.
14:26And nowhere is the backlash more extreme than in Afghanistan, where women and girls have been systematically erased from public
14:36life.
14:37Girls are denied education.
14:40Women are denied basic freedoms.
14:42For me, this can only be described as gender apartheid.
14:48On the Human Rights Council, Iceland, we have sought to match words with deeds.
14:55From Iran and Afghanistan to accountability for violations in Sudan.
15:00Throughout our Council, Iceland will emphasize gender equality, LGBTQI plus rights, the rights of children and young people, and the
15:11relationship between human rights and the environment.
15:15Human rights are not for some, as we know they are for all.
15:21Madam President, the same commitment to facts and responsibility must guide us on climate change.
15:29Leaders who deny or distort science should explain themselves to island communities watching the sea rise around them, to families
15:39losing land and livelihoods, to drought and erosion, like in the Sahel.
15:44In Iceland, we can see the changes taking place in our own region, in the Arctic.
15:52Rising temperatures and receding ice are already changing ecosystems and the lives of communities across the region.
16:00Climate change is not an ideology.
16:04Millions already live with its consequences.
16:08We need to address it, not ignore it.
16:12Nor can we ignore another transformation already affecting our societies, artificial intelligence.
16:19This revolution is changing how we work, communicate and receive information.
16:27It is also making it easier to produce convincing falsehoods and manipulate public debate.
16:34Freedom of speech is a fundamental right we must defend.
16:39But that does not require passivity when foreign states or other actors spread falsehoods, manipulate democratic processes or use AI
16:50to deceive citizens at unprecedented speed and scale.
16:54Governments, scientists, scientists and businesses must cooperate internationally to harness the benefits of AI while confronting its risks.
17:06And we need to move faster, much faster.
17:11Madam President, in difficult times nostalgia tempts us to imagine that the world used to be simpler and safer.
17:18It was not.
17:20The decades after the Cold War saw genocide in Rwanda, horrific wars in the former Yugoslavia and the Congo, the
17:28rise of international terrorism and devastating civil wars.
17:3225 years ago this month, terrorist attacks in the United States changed our world profoundly.
17:40Thirty years ago, the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty was established, yet the threat of nuclear proliferation remains with us.
17:50What distinguished some of the past's best moments was our response.
17:56Countries came together, built institutions and negotiated treaties.
18:01They created Human Rights Council, OCHA, ICC, UN Women and the UNFCCC.
18:06They placed women and security on the agenda of the Security Council and recognised sexual violence as a weapon and
18:16tactic of war.
18:18They adopted the Millennium Development Goals and later the Sustainable Development Goals.
18:24To put it simply, none of this happened by itself.
18:28It happened because political leaders consciously chose cooperation over retreat.
18:35That choice is before us again.
18:38Madam President, the United Nations next Secretary General must continue reforming this organisation, make difficult choices and direct resources where
18:51they make the greatest difference.
18:53That will require courage from her.
18:58Her.
18:59And so will the choices made by…
19:03Yes.
19:05Iceland stands on this, it's very clear.
19:08And so will the choices made by every member state represented in this hall.
19:13We must choose whether to uphold the law when it's inconvenient, whether to defend the rights of people who are
19:21not our citizens, and whether to protect and respect a system even when that system does not deliver the outcome
19:29we want.
19:31That is the real test of our commitment to multilateralism.
19:34Not what we say when the rules favor us, but what we do when they do not.
19:41For Iceland the choice is clear.
19:44We choose international law over selective obedience, accountability over impunity, cooperation over isolation, human dignity over division.
19:57The generation that founded the United Nations had seen firsthand what could happen when restraints on power collapsed.
20:08The charter, the charter, international law and the institutions that followed were their answers.
20:16In that sense, the United Nations is a gift from a generation that learned that lesson at an extraordinary cost.
20:26And now we need the courage to remember it.