American pressure to gain control over Greenland is escalating, under the pretext of links to national security purposes and the necessity of building the so called “Golden Dome”. This marks a new colonial chapter added to a series of previous attempts targeting the world’s largest island.
Greenland has been subjected to multiple colonial policies since the eighteenth century. Danish occupation authorities imposed a policy of forced assimilation on the Inuit population, the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic regions, marginalising their native language and enforcing Danish culture and religion.
During these transformations, grave violations were committed against Inuit women and children. Most notably, these included the use of forced contraception and medical coercion with the aim of “eliminating” these people and seizing control of their lands.
“Forced IUD”
From the 1960s until the early 1990s, documents revealed that Danish health authorities carried out an official campaign to install intrauterine contraceptive devices in thousands of Inuit women and girls in Greenland without their knowledge or the consent of their families, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
These devices were installed even in girls aged 12 to 13, as part of a premeditated campaign aimed at reducing Inuit population growth by preventing pregnancy. An independent report by a Danish university and another in Greenland indicates that by 1970 at least 4,070 women had been subjected to these coercive procedures. This contributed to a sharp decline in birth rates and caused severe physical and psychological harm, including chronic pain and infertility among the victims.
Denmark officially acknowledged that these practices “were wrong and inhumane” and adjusted its position following internal and international pressure. In August 2025, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen issued an official apology before parliament to the victims, stating: “We cannot change what happened, but we can take responsibility. I am sorry”, as reported by Reuters.
The Danish government published an independent report confirming the existence of “systematic discrimination” in the health sector against Inuit people. In late 2025, Danish and Greenlandic authorities agreed to establish a special reconciliation fund allowing approximately 4,500 women from the island to apply for financial compensation of 300,000 Danish kroner, equivalent to 6,000 US dollars, each for the period between 1960 and 1991.
The necessary legislation is scheduled to enter into force in June 2026, with registration opening for affected women in April 2026. Some Greenlandic leaders describe this case as genocide against the Indigenous population due to its devastating impact on the island’s social structure.
Experiments on Children
Violations against Greenland’s Indigenous population were not limited to forced population control. They also included experiments on children. In 1951, Danish authorities carried out an operation to remove 22 children from Greenland, aged between 4 and 9, from their families and transport them to Denmark as part of a “social experiment” to culturally rehabilitate them as Danes.
Parents were promised that the children would receive better education and learn the Danish language before returning to become the “educated elite” of Greenland. Instead, the children were prevented from contacting their families, isolated in institutions or adopted by Danish families, and forced to speak Danish under state supervision.
This constituted a violation of their right to family and cultural life and resulted in long term psychological harm. In March 2022, the Danish Prime Minister acknowledged responsibility and issued a face to face apology to six surviving victims, each of whom received financial compensation of 250,000 Danish kroner, equivalent to 37,000 US dollars, in recognition of the suffering they endured.
These devices were installed even in girls aged 12 to 13, as part of a premeditated campaign aimed at reducing Inuit population growth by preventing pregnancy. An independent report by a Danish university and another in Greenland indicates that by 1970 at least 4,070 women had been subjected to these coercive procedures. This contributed to a sharp decline in birth rates and caused severe physical and psychological harm, including chronic pain and infertility among the victims.
Denmark officially acknowledged that these practices “were wrong and inhumane” and adjusted its position following internal and international pressure. In August 2025, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen issued an official apology before parliament to the victims, stating: “We cannot change what happened, but we can take responsibility. I am sorry”, as reported by Reuters.
The Danish government published an independent report confirming the existence of “systematic discrimination” in the health sector against Inuit people. In late 2025, Danish and Greenlandic authorities agreed to establish a special reconciliation fund allowing approximately 4,500 women from the island to apply for financial compensation of 300,000 Danish kroner, equivalent to 6,000 US dollars, each for the period between 1960 and 1991.
The necessary legislation is scheduled to enter into force in June 2026, with registration opening for affected women in April 2026. Some Greenlandic leaders describe this case as genocide against the Indigenous population due to its devastating impact on the island’s social structure.
Ongoing Child Separation Policies
Practices of separating Inuit children from their families continue to this day within certain social systems. The United Nations Human Rights Office has reported that in recent years, children from Greenland have not infrequently been taken in Denmark and placed into foster care without their parents’ knowledge or consent.
According to a Danish study from 2022, an Inuit child in Denmark is seven times more likely to be placed in out of home care compared to Danish children. This reflects a cultural bias against traditional Inuit child-rearing practices. When placed with Danish families, these children often lose contact with their language and cultural heritage, according to the United Nations.
Denmark also pursued a policy of “linguistic suppression and exclusive education throughout the colonial period and beyond”. For example, following the amendment of the Danish constitution in 1953, Greenland became a Danish province and the Danish language was imposed within the educational and administrative systems.
As a result, a generation of children in the 1950s and 1960s did not sufficiently learn their mother tongue, Kalaallisut. The island’s language was not fully restored until the 1990s, when the 1979 Home Rule Act designated it as the primary language in schools.
Nevertheless, Danish continues to dominate governance and administration, marginalising Kalaallisut speakers and creating a cultural divide within Greenlandic society.
Church based education programmes and missionary efforts also marginalised traditional cultural heritage, such as shamanism, under the pretext of “primitive civilisation”. This left a legacy of cultural loss and attempts to erase traditional identity.
Political Backgrounds and Motivations
These violations occurred within the context of a Danish colonial project aimed at controlling Greenland’s destiny and limiting the influence of its Indigenous population. The 1951 child removal experiment was part of Denmark’s efforts to present the island as an integral part of the Kingdom of Denmark before the United Nations, according to a Reuters report.
A government report acknowledged that the forced IUD campaign explicitly aimed to limit Greenland’s population growth. Greenlandic leaders have stated that these policies represented a covert attempt at cultural genocide against the Inuit people. Greenland’s then Prime Minister, Mute Egede, described the IUD case as genocide against the Indigenous population.
Greenland’s geopolitical location and natural resources, such as copper and oil, also play a role in Denmark’s determination to retain influence and control over the island, particularly amid growing American and European interest in the Arctic region.
Compensation and Apologies
For decades, Denmark has taken steps towards recognition and compensation to address past wrongs. In December 2020, the Danish government issued a written apology to victims of the child experiment, followed in November 2021 by legal pressure from the six surviving victims seeking financial compensation.
This culminated in March 2022 with a personal apology from the Prime Minister to the remaining survivors and the payment of compensation to each of them.
In the case of forced IUDs, Denmark’s official apology came in August 2025. The Danish Prime Minister and her Greenlandic counterpart announced the creation of a “reconciliation” fund to grant individual compensation to victims.
Prime Minister Frederiksen stated that the fund would provide financial compensation to those who had been subjected to “systematic discrimination”, including victims of forced IUD insertion. Affected women will be able to submit compensation applications from mid 2026.
Compensation efforts have included official apologies and financial payments to victims. Diplomatic and legislative efforts continue within Denmark’s Ministries of Health and Justice to establish legal mechanisms ensuring the effective and permanent implementation of these compensations.
