A/HRC/54/31/Add.1 population growth of Greenland. During that time, approximately half of the fertile women in Greenland, approximately 4,500, some as young as 12 years old, received intrauterine devices (IUDs) without their consent or that of their parents. Girls were sent to the local hospital during routine medical examinations, sometimes conducted in school, and IUDs were inserted. 27. During the visit, the Special Rapporteur heard directly from victims about the devastating consequences the campaign had on their bodies. Several women and girls suffered severe medical consequences, including bleeding, infection, persistent pain and infertility. In some cases, the uterus had to be removed due to damage. The campaign, which is estimated to have affected approximately half of the fertile female Inuit population, dramatically lowered the Inuit women’s average birth rate from 7 to 2.3 children, leading to a drastic change in the traditional composition of Inuit families. In some villages in Greenland, the birth rate dropped to nearly zero. The Special Rapporteur was informed that cases of involuntary IUD implants had occurred as recently as 2019. 28. On 30 September 2022, Denmark and Greenland agreed on a two-year independent investigation to scrutinize the policy on the use of IUDs between 1966 and 1991, when Greenland took over responsibility for the health-care system.7 The investigation commenced in May 2023 and will seek to uncover the decision-making process and the concrete implementation of the initiative. However, the scope of the inquiry is restrictive as more recent cases have been reported. The Special Rapporteur stresses the importance of consulting with Inuit women throughout all phases of the inquiry. 29. In 1951, 22 Inuit children aged between 6 and 9 years were sent to Denmark as part of a “social experiment”. The intent was to improve the children’s lives by “re-educating” them in the Danish language and culture to return to Greenland as agents of “modernization and development”. Six of them were adopted, without proper consent, by Danish families in Denmark. The remaining children were placed in orphanages in Greenland with little or no contact with their relatives. The children lost contact with their families, Inuit culture and language, for this reason, some ended up rootless and marginalized. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the fact that, in December 2020, Denmark issued a written apology for its role in the experiment and, in spring 2022, the Prime Minister of Denmark officially apologized for removing the children from their Inuit parents. The Government of Denmark agreed to pay damages of 250,000 Danish kroner to each of the 6 children who were still alive in 2022; however, the relatives of the other 16 children have so far not received compensation. 30. The Special Rapporteur was informed that, between the 1950s and 1970s, at least 264 Inuit children were adopted by Danish families, some of them without the proper consent of their parents. The Special Rapporteur urges the Government of Denmark to investigate those events to shed light on possible unlawful removals of Inuit children and the consequences on them, their families and Inuit people. Adequate remedies, including addressing the consequences of intergenerational trauma, should be taken. 31. In the 1950s and 1960s, many Danish men moved to Greenland because of the construction boom, resulting in a rise in pregnancies among young unmarried Inuit women. Since 1938, children born out of wedlock in Denmark have had the right to identify their father and inherit. However, up until 1963 and 1974 for north and east Greenland, respectively, legislation in Greenland did not contain rules on paternity for children born out of wedlock. Consequently, thousands of children of unmarried Inuit women were legally fatherless, having no right to know or inherit from their biological fathers. In 2014, the Parliament of Denmark passed an act to allow those who were “legally fatherless” to initiate legal proceedings to determine their biological father. However, paternity does not entail the reopening of closed estates. Compensation claims and a public apology for depriving them of their right to identity remain pending. 7 6 See https://sum.dk/nyheder/2022/september/danmark-og-groenland-indgaar-aftale-om-udredningaf-%E2%80%9Dspiralsagen%E2%80%9D (in Danish); and https://sum.dk/nyheder/2023/maj/danmark-og-groenland-saetter-uvildig-udredning-af-spiralsagen-igang (in Danish). GE.23-13414