In brief
Greenland’s government has released two sharply different reports after experts examined a 1960s‑70s birth‑control program that forced over 4,500 Inuit women and girls to wear intra‑uterine devices. The findings split into a panel that acknowledged human‑rights violations but could not confirm genocide on the basis of contraceptive practice alone, and another that ruled the practice did not amount to genocide. Denmark has formally apologized and set up a compensation scheme, while Greenland’s prime minister plans a reconciliation commission. The debate highlights lingering colonial tensions and the struggle for Inuit representation in investigations of past abuses.
Greenland’s justice minister has said the government cannot conclude whether genocide was committed against Inuit women after experts examined the use of forced contraception in the 1960s and 70s.
On Friday two reports were published, a year after Denmark apologized for the treatment of Inuit women and girls in its autonomous territory.
The government will set up a reconciliation commission, while Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen promised the governments will work together.
Denmark has passed a compensation law paying 300,000 Danish crowns to each woman affected by the policy.
Records show that between 1966 and 1970, 4,500 Greenlandic women and girls—some as young as 13—had intra‑uterine devices implanted by Danish doctors without their knowledge or consent.
The practice was widespread enough to severely slow Greenland’s population growth, shifting fertility from seven children per woman to 2.3 during the eight‑year campaign.
The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide, in part, as imposing measures intended to prevent births within a group.
A panel of four experts was tasked with determining whether the forced contraception violated human rights and met the definition of genocide.
The panel split; two members resigned and produced a separate report, while the remaining experts found rights violations but could not confirm genocide on contraceptive practices alone.
The rival report concluded no evidence of intent to destroy the Greenlandic population and rejected the genocide claim.
The justice minister noted the discord: “These reports differ as one says there was no genocide at all, while the other says there could have been.”
Victims like Henriette Berthelsen and Inger Platou highlighted the lack of Inuit representation in the investigation and described the forced IUDs as a violation of bodily autonomy.
Greenland’s history as a Danish colony until 1953 and its ongoing healthcare governance until 1992 shape the backdrop of these abuses.
The birth‑control campaign was initially deemed a “success” when fertility rates dropped sharply, though it remains a painful chapter for many Inuit women.
