Greenlandic Justice Minister Marianne Paviasen told reporters on Friday that the government could not determine whether the forced contraception amounted to genocide, following the release of two reports on the practice. "We cannot say, on behalf of the government, whether there was genocide," Paviasen said. "This is something we can continue to debate."
The reports come a year after Denmark formally apologised for the treatment of Inuit women and girls in its autonomous territory. Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen announced that a "reconciliation commission" would be established. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the two governments would work together on the matter.
Records from the national archives show that between 1966 and 1970, approximately 4,500 Greenlandic women and girls, some as young as 13, had an intra-uterine device (IUD) implanted under a birth-control programme administered by Danish doctors. Many women have since come forward saying they were fitted with the device without their knowledge or consent. The widespread use of contraception in the programme significantly slowed Greenland's population growth.
Denmark has passed a compensation law to pay 300,000 Danish crowns ($46,800) to each woman affected by the policy. In 2024, a former prime minister of Greenland, Mute B Egede, described the practice as "genocide". The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide includes in its definition "imposing measures intended to prevent births" within a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.