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A/HRC/28/59/Add.1 majority in Parliament and therefore they could not be examined by the High Court of Impeachment. The former Prime Minister was cleared by the High Court of most of the charges, but sentenced for failing to call emergency meetings, as provided for under the Constitution. He has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights where his case is still under consideration. E. Reform of banking supervision 39. The Special Investigative Commission also noted the failure of the supervisory authorities to foresee the crisis. In its report, it concluded that the Financial Supervisory Authority (FME), the institution that bore the main responsibility for monitoring the activities of the banks, had not grown in proportion to the banks and its practices had not kept up with the rapid change in banking practices. Failings of FME included insufficient expertise to carry out its statutory supervisory tasks, as well as a lack of assertiveness when it discovered that regulated entities did not comply with applicable laws or regulations. In response to violations of the law, only written comments were provided to the relevant financial corporations; the issues were not examined through the proper legal channels, nor did the authorities try, in a decisive way, to prevent the collapse and to reduce the size of the balance sheets of Icelandic banks, after 2006. The Special Investigative Commission also detailed the failure of the Board of Governors of the Central Bank of Iceland and the Ministers responsible to inform each other appropriately or to act adequately on information indicating that urgent action was required. It concluded that, in addition to the former Prime Minister, the Ministers of Finance and Business Affairs, the Director General of FME and three Governors of the Central Bank had shown negligence.22 In addition, FME staff were frequently recruited from their supervisory functions directly into more lucrative jobs in financial institutions whose operations they were previously required to supervise, thereby undermining the ability of FME to perform its functions. 40. In the aftermath of the crash, the Government implemented a range of reforms aimed at enhancing the supervisory capacities of FME.23 FME also assisted in the investigation of 205 cases relating to alleged violations prior to the 2008 banking collapse, referring 103 cases of bankers to the Office of the Special Prosecutor, for further action.24 41. Iceland should implement the recently passed European banking legislation in order to further strengthen the system of banking supervision. The Financial Stability Council, composed of representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank and FME, seeks to adequately monitor the macro-financial situation of the country in order to take timely decisions. As the Parliament played a crucial role in identifying the causes of the financial crisis, one would think that it should play a role in the Financial Stability Council, either by including a parliamentary representative on the Council or by ensuring citizens’ oversight of the Council through a parliamentary committee. 22 23 24 14 Iceland, Report of the Special Investigative Commission (Reykjavik, 2010), chapter 21, Causes of the Collapse of the Icelandic Banks – Responsibility, Mistakes and Negligence, available from www.rna.is/media/skjol/RNAvefurKafli21Enska.pdf. See, for example, “Future Structure of the Icelandic Financial System”, report of the Minister of the Economy to the Althingi (March 2012), pp. 63–77, 101–102. Iceland, Annual Report of the Financial Supervisory Authority (FME) 2013 (Reykjavik, 2013), p. 9.

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Report of the Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, on his mission to Iceland (8–15 December 2014)

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Iceland

Rights Involved

Right to adequate housing
Right to education
Right to health
Right to social security
Right to work
Rights of the child
Rights of women and girls

Issue

Accountability
Extraterritorial obligations
Non-discrimination
Non-retrogression
Participation
Progressive realization
Resource allocation
Resource expenditure
Resource generation

Special Procedure

Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights

Date: Mar 20, 2015

Summary: The Independent Expert reports on the mission to Iceland (8–15 December 2014), and assesses the extent to which Iceland has fulfilled its obligations to protect economic, social and cultural rights in the aftermath of its recent banking crisis. Under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Iceland has been a party since 1979, Iceland is obliged to progressively realize ESCR to the maximum available resources. While the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has acknowledged that a financial crisis may require economic adjustments, it reminded the Government in November 2012 that such adjustments should: (a) be of a temporary nature; (b) be necessary and proportionate; (c) not be discriminatory and comprise all possible measures, including tax measures, to support social transfers to mitigate inequalities and to ensure that the rights of the disadvantaged and marginalized individuals and groups are not disproportionally affected; and (d) identify a social protection floor and the minimum core content of rights, and ensure the protection of those rights at all times.

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A:HRC:28:59:Add.1.pdf
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Report of the Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, on his mission to Iceland (8–15 December 2014)

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