Greenland to open truth commission over forced contraception scheme

Greenland said Friday it would establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Denmark's forced contraception of thousands of indigenous Inuits, after experts failed to agree on whether the scheme constituted "genocide". The forced contraception campaign is one of the darkest chapters in Greenland's history with its former colonial master Denmark. From the 1960s to 1990, more than 4,000 Greenlandic women were forced to wear a contraceptive coil – or intrauterine device (IUD) – in the vast majority of cases without their consent or that of their parents if they were minors. Girls as young as 12 were affected, some of whom were never able to have children afterwards. "We cannot say, on behalf of the government, whether there was genocide. This is something we can continue to debate," Greenland's Justice Minister Marianne Paviasen told reporters. Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the priority now was to "begin the healing process". "We will set up a reconciliation commission," he vowed, saying he wanted to cooperate with Denmark on the matter. Read more‘Like knives penetrating me’: Greenland’s victims of forced contraception seek justice In Copenhagen, Danish Pr...