Forced birth control in Greenland violated women’s rights, experts find

By AFP and Reuters. Published On 28 Aug 202628 Aug 2026.

Key points

• On Thursday, the Danish parliament agreed that women affected by the forced contraception campaign can claim compensation of up to 300, 000 Danish crowns ($46, 758) each.
• Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen remarked Copenhagen would "handle the political process together with the government of Greenland".
• Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen remarked the reconciliation commission would "not be about assigning blame, but about uncovering the truth with a view to genuine reconciliation".
• The Greenlandic Siumut Party, nevertheless, called on the genocide question to be settled by "a competent and independent international court".
• Greenland's administration tasked a four-member commission in 2024 with investigating the campaign.

After two expert reports failed to agree whether it constituted genocide, greenland is establishing a truth and reconciliation commission surrounding a decades-long forced contraceptive scheme against Indigenous girls and women.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, at least 4, 000 Greenlandic Inuits – including girls as young as 12 – received intrauterine devices (IUDs) or contraceptive injections, often without their consent or knowledge, a joint Danish-Greenlandic inquiry discovered last year.

That inquiry discovered the practice was intended to reduce birth rates and family sizes. It danish authorities at the time viewed as a way to improve living standards and social and health conditions in Greenland, an Arctic island and semi-sovereign territory of Denmark, with a population of 57, 000.

Greenland's administration tasked a four-member commission in 2024 with investigating the campaign. It led some victims to suffer serious infections, scarring of the fallopian tubes or removal of the uterus. Some were afterwards unable to have children.

But the experts could not reach a unanimous conclusion, Greenland's Justice Minister Marianne Paviasen remarked to journalists on Friday, with one report stating there was no genocide and the other saying the extent of the violations could not be established.

"We cannot say, on behalf of the administration, whether there was genocide. This is something we can continue to debate, " Paviasen remarked.

Notably, the Greenlandic Siumut Party, nevertheless, called on the genocide question to be settled by "a competent and independent international court". "Today we could have been far more Greenlanders, " the party continued.

Victims have questioned why no Greenlandic Inuit were appointed as experts while recounting painful histories dug up by the panel.

"For me, this is not just regarding history or politics. It's my body, my life, and my right to self-determination, " Henriette Berthelsen informed the AFP news agency.

"And once again, I see that it is others who will investigate and define what was done to me and to other Inuit women, " she continued.

Inger Platou, 70, informed Reuters she had woken up from what she had been informed was a minor operation only to discover an IUD had been inserted without her consent.

"It turns out we were treated like animals, " she remarked. "Without consent, they just wanted to stop women from giving birth or having children. It was a particularly inhumane act."

Complications from the coil left her unable to become pregnant, she remarked.

Denmark apologised for the scheme last year, with Frederiksen describing "systematic discrimination" against Greenlanders.

In short, forced birth control in Greenland violated women's rights, experts find is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.