In December, the Danish government and a broad majority in the Danish Parliament entered into a political agreement that will ensure individual compensation for the Greenlandic women covered by the IUD case.
The compensation scheme has since been subject to consultation. But not among civil society organizations in Greenland.
This is stated by the Danish Council for Human Rights (IPPS) in a press release, in which they strongly criticize the Danish Ministry of the Interior and Health.
The omission of civil society organizations in Greenland leads the IPPS to call the consultation process contrary to binding rules in international law that protect both the right to participation and the right to non-discrimination:
- The women involved in this case are exclusively Inuit. And approximately 70-75 percent of all Inuit in the Kingdom of Denmark live in Greenland. When we also see from the consultation list that, among others, the Danish Tattoo Association, the Danish Transplantation Association and Danish tobacco producers have been invited to comment on the bill, we wonder what the Danish Ministry of the Interior and Health's reasons were for not sending the bill for consultation to civil society organizations in Greenland.
- Whatever the reason for the omission, it is a mistake that must not happen again, says the chairman of IPPS, Tukumminngiaq Olsen Lyberth.
Points of concern in the bill
The bill is to ensure compensation through the reconciliation fund for the potentially 4,500 women who, from 1960 to 1999, received contraception without their knowledge or consent. This makes it possible to pay out 300,000 kroner to each of the affected women, which is on a par with the compensation that the Greenland Government has allocated to women who, against their will, received contraception after 1992 under the Home Rule and Self-Government.
But there are also problems with the bill itself, writes IPPS. After the consultation period expired, they were sent a proposal for an ordinance on the entry into force of the Compensation Act for Greenland.
In a 12-page consultation response to the proposed ordinance, IPPS expresses its concern about a number of key human rights issues.
Among other things, the bill sets an application deadline, which means that applications for compensation can be submitted until 1 June 2028.
International human rights law makes it clear that statutes of limitation do not apply to gross violations of international human rights law and national statutes of limitation must not be unreasonably restrictive, writes the Danish Human Rights Council.
In addition, doctors today still discover contraception in women who had no idea that they had been prescribed contraception. The application deadline should therefore according to IPPS be removed altogether, as it unduly restricts these women's right to compensation.
The entire period was Danish responsibility
Furthermore, IPPS believes that the compensation scheme should apply to all women who have received involuntary contraception, regardless of when, as human rights are the responsibility of the Danish state, regardless of the fact that Greenland took over the health sector in 1992.
Sermitsiaq has contacted the Ministry of the Interior and Health for a comment on the criticism from IPPS, to which they respond:
"Since the government has resigned and the ministry has transitioned to functioning as a caretaker ministry, press inquiries are generally not answered. The Ministry of the Interior and Health cannot currently comment on legislative proposals that were sent for consultation before the election."
