Greenland: Greenland’s government has said it cannot determine whether Denmark’s historical forced contraception programme against Inuit women and girls amounted to genocide, after two expert reports reached conflicting conclusions.
Greenland’s Justice Minister Marianne Paviasen said that the government could not make a definitive judgment on the genocide allegation and described the issue as one that could continue to be debated.
The reports examined a birth-control programme carried out in Greenland during the 1960s and 1970s, when thousands of Greenlandic women and girls were fitted with intrauterine devices (IUDs). Records show that around 4,500 women and girls, including some as young as 13, received IUDs between 1966 and 1970 under a programme administered by Danish doctors.
In recent years, many affected women have said the devices were inserted without their knowledge or consent. The programme was so widespread that it contributed to a sharp slowdown in Greenland’s population growth.
Denmark apologised last year for the treatment of Inuit women and girls, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen describing the policy as systematic discrimination. Denmark has also introduced compensation of 300,000 Danish kroner for each woman affected by the programme.
A panel of four experts was asked to investigate whether human rights had been violated and whether the violations met the legal definition of genocide. However, the panel became divided, with two members leaving and producing a separate report.
Two remaining experts, Alaskan lawyer Dalee Sambo Dorough and University of Copenhagen law professor Miriam Cullen, concluded that the rights of Inuit women had been violated. However, the report said the evidence did not allow the experts to conclude that genocide had occurred based on contraceptive practices alone.
The report said genocidal intent by Denmark remained a possible inference that a court could consider, particularly if evidence outside the report’s scope was examined. Such evidence could include the historical removal of Inuit children to be raised by Danish families.
The separate report, prepared by former Danish Institute for Human Rights head Jonas Christoffersen and psychologist Jensine Nedergaard, also acknowledged that women had been wronged but said there was insufficient evidence to establish the scale of the mistreatment.
Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen has announced plans for a reconciliation commission, while Frederiksen said Denmark and Greenland would work together on the political process.
Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953 and gained home rule in 1979. Copenhagen continued to oversee Greenland’s healthcare system until 1992. Inuit and mixed Danish-Inuit people make up nearly 90 percent of Greenland’s population of about 56,000.
The contraception programme was introduced amid concerns among Danish authorities about rapid population growth, modernization and rising teenage pregnancy rates in Greenland. The conflicting expert findings mean the question of whether the historical policy legally constituted genocide remains unresolved.
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