The remote Eastern Greenland village of Ittoqqortoormiit, in Scoresby Sound Fjord, Eastern Greenland. Photo: AFP / Olivier Morin
By Christy Cooney, BBC News
A group of 67 women from Greenland are seeking compensation from the Danish government over a campaign of involuntary birth control in the 1960s.
At least 4500 women, some of them teenagers, were fitted with coils under a programme intended to limit birth rates among the indigenous population.
An inquiry is due to conclude in 2025, but the women, some of whom are in their 70s, want compensation now.
They are seeking 300,000 kroner (NZ$70,100) each.
Greenland, now a semi-sovereign territory of Denmark, was a Danish colony until 1953.
The scale of the campaign was exposed last year in a podcast published by Danish broadcaster DR.
Records from the national archives showed that, between 1966 and 1970 alone, intrauterine devices (IUDs) were fitted into the women, some as young as 13, without their knowledge or consent.
The government of Greenland estimates that, by the end of 1969, 35 percent of women in the territory who could potentially have borne children had been fitted with an IUD, according to DR.
A commission set up by the Danish and Greenlandic governments to investigate the programme is not due to deliver its findings until May 2025.
"We don't want to wait for the results of the inquiry," said psychologist Naja Lyberth, who initiated the compensation claim.
"We are getting older. The oldest of us, who had IUDs inserted in the 1960s, were born in the 1940s and are approaching 80. We want to act now."
Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen. Photo: Maxym Marusenko / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP
Lyberth said that, in some cases, the devices fitted had been too big for the girls' bodies, causing serious health complications or even infertility, while in others the women had been unaware of the devices until they were discovered recently by gynaecologists.
She accused the Danish government of the time of wanting to control the size of Greenland's population in order to save money on welfare.
"It's already 100 percent clear that the government has broken the law by violating our human rights and causing us serious harm," she said.
Mads Pramming, the lawyer representing the women, sent a claim on their behalf to the office of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday.
Lyberth said she expected the government to refuse the request pending the results of the commission, and that if it did the group would take the matter to court.
Last year, Denmark apologised and paid compensation to six Inuit who were taken from their families in the 1950s as part of an attempt to build a Danish-speaking elite within Greenland.
Greenland has a population of just 57,000 and is both the largest island and the northernmost area of land in the world.
The territory has its own flag, language and prime minister, although its currency, justice system, and foreign and security affairs are still controlled by Denmark.
- This story was first published by the BBC.
