Two expert reports agree that Greenlandic women and girls were subjected to serious rights violations through nonconsensual contraception. One stops short of a genocide finding; the other concludes the legal threshold was not met.
Greenland’s government has released two expert reports on historic cases in which Indigenous women and girls were given contraception without valid consent, finding serious human rights violations while reaching different conclusions about whether the practices could amount to genocide.
The reports examine contraception practices from 1960 through 1991, a period in which Denmark was responsible for Greenland’s health system. A 2025 Danish-Greenlandic inquiry found that more than 4,000 women and girls received intrauterine devices or contraceptive injections, often without their knowledge or consent. Some were as young as 12.
A report by Dalee Sambo Dorough and Miriam Cullen found a reasonable basis to believe Kalaallit Inuit women suffered violations including discrimination, interference with private and family life, and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. It did not determine that genocide occurred, saying the evidence from contraception practices alone could not establish the specific intent required under international law. The authors said a broader examination of other alleged harms to Greenlanders would be needed.
A separate report by Jonas Christoffersen and Jensine Nedergaard concluded that the conduct did not meet the legal definition of genocide, citing a lack of evidence that authorities or health professionals intended to destroy the Greenlandic population in whole or in part. Greenland’s government said that report did not fulfill its commission after peer review, while the authors disputed criticism of its methodology.
There is no dispute between the reports that women were wronged by contraception administered without valid consent. The central disagreement is narrower and legal: whether the available evidence establishes genocidal intent, a required element of genocide under the U.N. convention.
Denmark has apologized for the program and its parliament has approved compensation of 300,000 Danish kroner, about $46,500, for each eligible woman. Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the government would begin work toward a reconciliation commission with Denmark.
