Over 140 Greenland women are suing Denmark, here's why

More than 140 Greenlandic women sued the Danish state Monday for forcing them to have a coil, or intrauterine device (IUD), fitted in the 1960s and 1970s even though many were barely teens.

Denmark had carried out the campaign quietly, without the women's consent or even knowledge in some cases, to limit the birth rate in the Arctic territory, which was no longer a colony at the time but still under Danish control.

"The lawsuit was filed this morning. My clients chose to do this because they received no reply to their request for compensation in October," the lawyer for the plaintiffs, Mads Pramming, told AFP.

"Their human rights were violated, they are the living proof."

A podcast series by Danish public broadcaster DR that aired in 2022 revealed the extent of the campaign -- more than 4,500 women, based on data from the national archives -- and came as Denmark and Greenland, which became an autonomous territory in 2009, re-examine their past relationship.

In October, 67 women demanded the state pay them financial compensation of 300,000 kroner ($44,000) each.

"Since then, more women have joined us. The oldest one is 85 years old," Pramming said.

A total of 143 women are suing the Danish state.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, some 4,500 young Inuits were forced to undergo the procedure without their consent or that of their family.

Many of the women were not aware they had been fitted with an IUD and Greenlandic gynaecologists until recently continued to find IUDs in women who had no idea they were there.

An inquiry launched last year into Denmark's entire Greenland policy is due to be published in 2025.

"When it comes to (the women's) case, the inquiry and its conclusions won't be significant. It will not decide whether their rights were violated but the courts can make such a decision," Pramming said.

In 2022, the Danish state apologised and paid compensation to six Inuits more than 70 years after they were separated from their families to take part in an experiment aimed at creating a Danish-speaking elite on the vast Arctic island.