Statement by Iceland in the exchange of views with Mr Tiny Kox, President of the Parliamentary Assembly

Council of Europe, Committee of Ministers, 1423rd meeting of the Ministers' Deputies. Statement delivered by Ragnhildur Arnljótsdóttir.

Mr. Chair,

It is a pleasure to be able to welcome our new PACE President to exchange views on the recent session. We welcome the work of the Parliamentary Assembly under continuously challenging conditions as well as the French authorities and the Secretariat for their support to the work of PACE.

We are looking forward to working with you, Mr. President, to achieve our common objective.

Mr. Chair,

I'm taking the floor in particular to welcome the Parliamentary Assembly´s work and debate on the rights of LGBTI people at the session last week. We share the Parliamentary Assembly's concern at the increase in hate speech, violence and hate crimes against LGBTI people in Council of Europe member States.

Although the Parliamentary Assembly highlighted a number of very worrying situations it needs to be stated that none of us are immune from hate and that we do have to ensure that no minority becomes victim of prejudice and hate.

Each of us need to consider if we can do more to ensure that we have the right legislation in place and that the legislation is enforced. In Iceland, we are currently undertaking a public consultation process on a new action plan to ensure that we continue our efforts to achieve the full promotion and protection of the rights of LGBTI individuals.

One of the actions proposed is to expand our legislation when it comes to hate speech and violence driven by hate against LGBTI individuals. We hope to be able to conclude the required revisions in 2023.

We therefore appreciate the Parliamentary Assembly's call to action on this issue and hope to continue to follow its important work on the rights of LGBTI people.

I thank you.