Greenland experts split on whether Denmark’s forced IUDs were genocide

Records from the national archives show that, between 1966 and 1970, 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.

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In recent years, many women came forward to say they had been fitted with an IUD without their knowledge or consent.

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Records from the national archives show that, between 1966 and 1970, 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.

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Use of the birth control was so widespread that Greenland's population growth severely slowed.

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Records from the national archives show that, between 1966 and 1970, 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.

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The two experts who remained, Alaskan lawyer Dalee Sambo Dorough and University of Copenhagen law professor Miriam Cullen, found in their report that the rights of Inuit women in Greenland had been violated.

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Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953 and did not gain home rule until 1979.

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The Inuit, or mixed Danish and Inuit, make up nearly 90% of the island's population of 56,000.

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In the eight years from the campaign's inception in 1966 until 1974 when it levelled off, Greenland's fertility rate plunged from seven children per woman to 2.3.

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This growth, in addition to an increasing rate of teenage pregnancies, had alarmed the Danish authorities.

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In 1970, the campaign was considered a "success" as fertility rates had fallen sharply, though the rate continued to fall for some time after that.

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The Inuit, or mixed Danish and Inuit, make up nearly 90% of the island's population of 56,000.

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COPENHAGEN/NUUK - A campaign of forced contraception in Greenland that ran primarily in the 1960s and 1970s violated women's human rights but did not meet the legal definition of genocide, two expert reports concluded on Aug 28.

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Both reports found administering contraception without valid consent breached the women's right to respect for their private and family life and subjected them to degrading treatment in some cases.

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Both reports found administering contraception without valid consent breached the women's right to respect for their private and family life and subjected them to degrading treatment in some cases.

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The reports differed on whether the practice was systemic.

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COPENHAGEN/NUUK - A campaign of forced contraception in Greenland that ran primarily in the 1960s and 1970s violated women's human rights but did not meet the legal definition of genocide, two expert reports concluded on Aug 28.

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Documented consequences for some women included heavy bleeding, serious infections, scarring of the fallopian tubes, removal of the uterus and the inability to have children.

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In their report, Dalee Sambo Dorough, a lawyer from Alaska and former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, and Miriam Cullen, a law professor at the University of Copenhagen, found "a reasonable basis to believe that Kalaallit Inuit (Greenlandic) women have suffered involuntary contraceptive practices that violated their rights to equality and non-discrimination, to non-interference with private and family life, to decide on the number and spacing of children, and to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health... as well as the right to freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and to maintain bodily and cultural integrity."

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The UN Genocide Convention prohibits not just mass killing but "measures intended to prevent births" within a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, and requires proof the acts were carried out with intent to destroy that group in whole or in part.

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Dorough and Cullen found, however, "reasonable basis to believe" Denmark had breached the Genocide Convention by learning as early as 1969 of a serious risk that the programme amounted to the preventing of births within a group, and failing to take all measures within its power.

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His administration has highlighted allegations of misconduct by the Danish authorities against the people of its former colony, in seeking to persuade them to turn to Washington.

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The reports' findings are sensitive because US President Donald Trump has pledged to take over Greenland, which aspires to full independence one day.

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The reports' authors and the women at the centre of the case asked that the findings not be used in questions over Greenland's future ties with Denmark on the grounds that the women's experience should be considered in isolation and not drawn into geopolitical disputes.

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Both reports were peer reviewed by two outside academics: one found the Christoffersen and Nedergaard report fell short of "recognised scientific standards". The authors did not respond to a request for comment. Greenland's justice minister said their report did not fulfil their commission.

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Under the terms of the Genocide Convention, which Denmark ratified in 1951, the country pledges not to commit genocide, and to prevent and punish it.

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Both reports were peer reviewed by two outside academics: one found the Christoffersen and Nedergaard report fell short of "recognised scientific standards". The authors did not respond to a request for comment. Greenland's justice minister said their report did not fulfil their commission.

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

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The government told the authors to use the definition under the United Nations' 1948 genocide convention, which includes "imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group."

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More than 350 Greenlandic Indigenous women and girls, including some 12 years old and younger, previously came forward to investigators and reported that they were forcibly given contraception by Danish health authorities.

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Known as the "spiral case," the revelations have rocked both Denmark and Greenland.

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They were not told details about the procedure, or did not give their consent.

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On Friday, the Greenlandic government only accepted the findings of one of the reports, saying that an expert found that the second — the one that definitively said a genocide had not taken place — did not meet recognized scientific standards.

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Theirs was the one rejected by the island's government; one of the authors is a former director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

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The accepted report, however, did not conclude whether there was a genocide.

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The authors did not, unlike the other report, conclusively say a genocide did not occur.

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The news release did not elaborate on what the two authors considered to be the geopolitical situation.

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From the 1960s to 1990, more than 4,000 Greenlandic women were forced to wear a contraceptive coil, or intrauterine device (IUD), in the vast majority of cases without their consent or that of their parents if they were minors.

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The reports did however agree that the contraception programme may have violated multiple human rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples.

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On Thursday, the Danish parliament agreed that women affected by the forced contraception campaign can claim compensation from Copenhagen, an initiative pushed by Frederiksen, who presented Denmark's official apology last year.

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By the late 1970s, one in two Greenlandic women of childbearing age, at least 4,070 women, had been fitted with an IUD, according to an investigation presented in September 2025.

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The scandal came to light when one of the victims spoke out in the media about the trauma she experienced.

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A podcast series in 2022 then revealed the full extent of the campaign.

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Henriette Berthelsen has long called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to be established.

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The 68-year-old psychologist said that would make it possible to "acknowledge what happened."

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Nuuk and Copenhagen are also shedding light on several other painful chapters from the past, including children adopted without their parents' consent.

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The 68-year-old psychologist said that would make it possible to "acknowledge what happened."

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