Organisations Demand Icelandic Government To Implement Women’s Charter

Several organisations are calling on the Icelandic government to incorporate the Women’s Charter into Icelandic law, reports RÚV.

The demand comes after the government has failed to address gender equality due to funding shortfalls and concerns have been raised about the Icelandic justice system’s handling of sexual offense cases.

The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association, Icelandic Centre for Human Rights, Öfgum, UN Women in Iceland, and the Icelandic Disability Alliance have submitted a report urging the government to implement the Women’s Charter into law.

Even though Iceland signed the Women’s Charter in 1980, it has yet to be incorporated into Icelandic law. The group is set to have a meeting with the Icelandic government to ask questions about the implementation of the Women’s Charter.

“We now have very strong gender equality laws in Iceland, but there is a complete lack of this being incorporated into all legislation, that it is not just the Gender Equality Act itself that stands behind it, but that it is the Women’s Charter, discrimination against women only comes through Icelandic law as a whole,” says Executive Director of the Icelandic Women’s Rights Association, Rut Einarsdóttir.