Greenland’s government has said it cannot conclude that genocide was committed against the island’s Inuit population through a decades-old forced contraception programme.
Justice Minister Marianne Paviasen said the government could not determine whether the policy amounted to genocide. This comes after experts released two reports examining the treatment of Greenlandic women and girls during the 1960s and 1970s.
“We cannot say, on behalf of the government, whether there was genocide,” Paviasen told reporters.
“This is something we can continue to debate.”
The two reports were released on Friday, a year after Denmark apologised for the treatment of Inuit women and girls in its former colony.
Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said a reconciliation commission would be established. While Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the two governments would work together on the next steps.
Denmark has also passed a compensation law providing 300,000 Danish crowns (£34,404; $46,800) to each woman affected by the policy.
Thousands of Women and Girls Fitted with IUDs
Official records show that about 4,500 Greenlandic women and girls were fitted with intrauterine devices (IUDs) between 1966 and 1970 as part of a birth-control programme administered by Danish doctors.
Some of those fitted with the devices were as young as 13. In recent years, numerous women have come forward to say they were fitted with IUDs without their knowledge or consent.
The programme was so widespread that Greenland’s population growth slowed significantly, while the territory’s fertility rate fell sharply.
Danish authorities had become concerned about rapid population growth in Greenland, which had accelerated from the 1950s. Especially as modern healthcare and other aspects of modernisation improved. Rising teenage pregnancy rates also contributed to concerns among Danish officials.
By 1970, Danish authorities considered the birth-control campaign a success after fertility rates fell substantially. Between 1966 and 1974, Greenland’s fertility rate dropped from about seven children per woman to 2.3.
For now, Greenland’s government has stopped short of describing the policy as genocide. However, they still acknowledge the serious human rights violations identified by the experts.
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