Debate on Denmark-IUD scandal in Greenland resolved

Denmark and Greenland reached a compensation agreement worth the equivalent of 40,000 euros for approximately 4,500 Greenlandic women who were subjected to the insertion of intrauterine devices (IUDs) as a contraceptive method without their knowledge or consent. The facts would have occurred between 1960 and 1991. The agreement was reached last week, closing a controversial chapter in the relations between Denmark and its autonomous territory of Greenland. Two committees of experts were appointed to investigate whether the practices constituted genocide, as defined by the 1948 United Nations Convention. The reports prepared by these committees did not reach a unanimous conclusion on the matter. The Danish authorities and local media have debated the implications of this scandal, which raised questions about the reproductive rights and bodily autonomy of Greenlandic women during the colonial period.