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Greenland to investigate possible human rights violations by Denmark in IUD scandal

The government in Greenland says it wants to investigate possible human rights violations related to forced contraception of women by Danish doctors in the 1960s and 1970s.

Published: 7 March 2024 15:16 CET
Greenland to investigate possible human rights violations by Denmark in IUD scandal
Greenland’s Minister of Justice and Equality, Naaja H. Nathanielsen. File photo: Christian Klindt Sølbeck/Ritzau Scanpix

Greenland’s Minister of Justice and Equality, Naaja H. Nathanielsen, confirmed in a statement the decision to probe the historical sterilisations, Greenlandic media KNR reports.

The investigation will take place parallel to another probe already ongoing under the auspices of the governments of both Denmark and Greenland.

The government in Greenland, Naalakkersuisut, has previously said it wanted the human rights element to form part of the existing inquiry, but Denmark has turned this down, Nathanielsen told KNR.

The Danish Ministry of the Interior and Health told newswire Ritzau it was unable to comment.

More than 140 Greenlandic women meanwhile sued the Danish state earlier this week for forcing them to have a coil, or intrauterine device (IUD), fitted in the 1960s and 1970.

Some of the women were teenagers at the time.

Denmark carried out the campaign quietly, without the women’s consent or even knowledge in some cases, to limit the birth rate in the Arctic territory, which was no longer a colony at the time but still under Danish control.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs, Mads Pramming, said on Monday that the case is a clear instance of human rights violation.

The Danish-Greenlandic investigation into the IUD scandal is expected to be completed in 2025. Its purpose is to uncover the political initiatives that resulted in the forced contraceptions.

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GREENLAND

Denmark sued by 143 Greenlandic women over forced contraception

More than 140 Greenlandic women sued the Danish state Monday for forcing them to have a coil, or intrauterine device (IUD), fitted in the 1960s and 1970s even though many were barely teens.

Published: 5 March 2024 12:22 CET
Denmark sued by 143 Greenlandic women over forced contraception

Denmark had carried out the campaign quietly, without the women’s consent or even knowledge in some cases, to limit the birth rate in the Arctic territory, which was no longer a colony at the time but still under Danish control.

“The lawsuit was filed this morning. My clients chose to do this because they received no reply to their request for compensation in October,” the lawyer for the plaintiffs, Mads Pramming, told AFP on Monday.

“Their human rights were violated, they are the living proof.”

A podcast series by Danish public broadcaster DR that aired in 2022 revealed the extent of the campaign — more than 4,500 women, based on data
from the national archives — and came as Denmark and Greenland, which became an autonomous territory in 2009, re-examine their past relationship.

In October, 67 women demanded the state pay them financial compensation of 300,000 kroner each.

“Since then, more women have joined us. The oldest one is 85 years old,” Pramming said.

A total of 143 women are suing the Danish state.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, some 4,500 young Inuits were forced to undergo the procedure without their consent or that of their family.

Many of the women were not aware they had been fitted with an IUD and Greenlandic gynaecologists until recently continued to find IUDs in women who had no idea they were there.

An inquiry launched last year into Denmark’s entire Greenland policy is due to be published in 2025.

“When it comes to (the women’s) case, the inquiry and its conclusions won’t be significant. It will not decide whether their rights were violated but the courts can make such a decision,” Pramming said.

In 2022, the Danish state apologised and paid compensation to six Inuits more than 70 years after they were separated from their families to take part in an experiment aimed at creating a Danish-speaking elite on the vast Arctic island.

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