Greenlandic Justice Minister Marianne Paviasen shared the government could not say whether there had been a genocide through forced contraception Greenland's justice minister has shared the government cannot conclude whether genocide was committed against the Inuit community after experts examined the use of forced contraception in the 1960s and 70s. "We cannot say, on behalf of the government, whether there was genocide," Marianne Paviasen told reporters.

"This is something we can continue to debate." Two reports on the practice were released on Friday, a year after Denmark apologised for the treatment of Inuit women and girls in its autonomous territory. Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen shared a "reconciliation commission" would be set up while Danish PM Mette Frederiksen promised the governments would work together.

For related coverage, explore our detailed analysis on Technology and Digital Systems.

Core Findings and Detailed Timeline

Denmark has passed a compensation law to pay 300,000 Danish crowns (£34,404; $46,800) to each woman affected 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 In recent years, many women came forward to say they had been fitted with an IUD without their knowledge or consent.

Use of the birth control was so widespread that Greenland's population growth severely slowed. Frederiksen released an apology last August to Greenlandic women and their families affected In 2024, a former prime minister of Greenland, Mute B Egede, described the practice as "genocide".

Under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide , external , one definition of genocide is "imposing measures intended to prevent births" within a "national, ethnical, racial or religious group".

The territory tasked a panel of four experts with establishing whether human rights had been violated and whether such violations met the definition of genocide. 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.

Read More: Nepal's Devastating Floods: Glacial Collapse Triggers Massive Disaster

Broader Implications and Future Outlook

But they shared that they could not conclude that genocide had taken place "on the basis of contraceptive practices alone". They added that genocidal intent The rival report, produced They found no evidence "any authority or health professional at any time had any intention of destroying the Greenlandic population".

Reacting on Friday, Greenland's justice minister shared the two reports were so different that one "says there was no genocide at all" while the other "says there could have been".

Greenland contraception scandal victims hear Danish PM's emotional apology Denmark apologises to Greenland's forced contraception victims ‘Doctors fitted a contraceptive coil without my consent’ One woman affected "For me, this is not just about history or politics. It's my body, my life and my right to self-determination," she shared.

"And once again, I see that it is others who will investigate and define what was done to me and to other Inuit women." Another woman, Inger Platou, 70, told Reuters that she remembered waking up from what she had been told was a minor operation to discover an IUD had been inserted without her consent.

"It turns out we were treated like animals," she shared. "Without consent, they just wanted to pause women from giving birth or having children. It was a very inhumane act." A doctor, she added, later told her complications from the coil had left her unable to become pregnant.

She went on to adopt two children from Colombia. "We are very deferential to authority because we are colonial children," she shared. Inger Platou says Inuit women and girls were "treated like animals" Reacting to the reports on Friday, Frederiksen shared: "We will handle the political process together with the government of Greenland.

The most important thing for me is that we find the right path together." Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953 and did not gain home rule until 1979. Copenhagen continued to oversee its healthcare system until 1992. The Inuit, or mixed Danish and Inuit, make up nearly 90% of the island's population of 56,000.