Greenland contraception campaign breached human rights, expert reports find

Nuuk, Greenland. A campaign of forced contraception in Greenland, mainly during the 1960s and 1970s, violated women’s human rights but did not meet the legal definition of genocide, two expert reports concluded on Friday.

The reports found that contraception administered without valid consent breached women’s rights to private and family life and, in some cases, constituted degrading treatment.

Findings of the reports

A joint Danish-Greenlandic inquiry in 2025 found that at least 4,000 Greenlandic women and girls, some as young as 12, received intrauterine devices or contraceptive injections between 1966 and 1991, often without their consent or knowledge.

The inquiry found that the practice was intended to reduce birth rates and family sizes. Danish authorities at the time viewed this as a means of improving living standards and social and health conditions in Greenland, an Arctic island and semi-sovereign territory of Denmark with a population of 57,000.

The reports differed over whether the practice was systemic.

Consequences and legal review

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

In 2024, the then-government in Nuuk appointed three legal experts and one psychologist to assess whether human rights and indigenous peoples’ rights had been violated and whether the actions met the definition of genocide.

The panel split during its work, with two members resigning and submitting a separate report.

Calls for reconciliation

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the government would establish a reconciliation commission.

“Its work should not be about assigning blame, but about uncovering the truth with a view to genuine reconciliation, which will create the future we desire as a society,” Nielsen said.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she would read the reports “with great interest” and welcomed Nielsen’s proposal.

“A reconciliation commission gives us the opportunity to look back at the darkness in our shared history, engage with it critically, and acknowledge the pain it may have caused,” Frederiksen said.

Siumut calls for international ruling

Greenland’s Siumut party said the genocide question should be determined by “a competent and independent international court”.

“Today we could have been far more Greenlanders,” the party said.