Greenland inquiry split on whether forced contraception was genocide

The Greenlandic government has released two long-awaited reports into the forcible contraception of thousands of Inuit women and girls by Danish health authorities, but the findings are sharply divided on the central question of whether the practice amounted to genocide.

Officials in Nuuk declined to state a definitive position on the matter during a Friday press conference. The government had instructed the inquiry's authors to apply the definition of genocide contained in the United Nations' 1948 convention, which explicitly includes "imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group."

The inquiry stems from what is known in Denmark and Greenland as the "spiral case." More than 350 Inuit women and girls, some as young as 12, have told investigators they were fitted with intrauterine devices (IUDs) or given hormonal injections without proper consent or information. Danish authorities have acknowledged that more than 4,000 women — reportedly half of Greenland's fertile female population at the time — received IUDs between the 1960s and mid-1970s.

The procedures were allegedly carried out to curb population growth on the Arctic island, which was rising rapidly due to improved living conditions and healthcare. The cases span from the 1960s to the early 1990s; Greenland assumed control of its own health programs on January 1, 1992.

The two reports were originally intended as a single publication, but two of the four inquiry members broke away months ago over "professional disagreements" and, according to the government, "concerns about the geopolitical situation." Their separate report — the one rejected by the government — concluded that no genocide occurred, finding no empirical evidence that any Danish or Greenlandic authority intended to destroy the Inuit population.

The government accepted only the findings of the other report, which stopped short of a definitive conclusion. Its authors said they could not determine intent solely from the contraception cases and called for further study of other Danish practices affecting Greenlandic children and families. They noted it is "difficult to imagine circumstances" where an attempt to substantially reduce a single ethnic group's population would not constitute an intent to destroy it in part.

The rejected report's authors include a former director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights. The government said it failed to meet recognized scientific standards.

The controversy unfolds as U.S. President Donald Trump renews pressure to control the strategically located island, a self-governing territory of Denmark. Both Nuuk and Copenhagen insist Greenland is not for sale and that its future rests with its people.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen formally apologized last year, and Copenhagen has approved compensation of 300,000 Danish kroner (about $46,500) per victim. Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen announced Friday that a reconciliation commission will be established, a move Frederiksen endorsed.