Indigenous women in Greenland sue Denmark over involuntary contraception in the 1960s and 70s
Source: AP
Updated 4:08 AM CST, March 4, 2024
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A group of Indigenous women in Greenland has sued Denmark for forcing them to be fitted with intrauterine contraceptive devices in the 1960s and 70s, and demanded total compensation of nearly 43 million kroner ($6.3 million), Danish media reported Monday.
The group of 143 Inuit women say Danish health authorities violated their human rights when they fitted them with the devices, commonly known as coils. Some of the women — including many who were teenagers at the time — were not aware of what happened or did not consent to the intervention.
The purpose was allegedly to limit population growth in Greenland by preventing pregnancy. The population on the Arctic island was rapidly increasing at the time because of better living conditions and better health care. The small T-shaped device, made from plastic and copper, and fitted in the uterus, prevents sperm from fertilizing an egg.
Danish authorities say that as many as 4,500 women and girls — reportedly half of the fertile women in Greenland — received coil implants between the 1960s and mid-1970s.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/greenland-forced-contraception-lawsuit-compensation-denmark-539ef9e1e4ecd007dd34b2a024ecb0fa
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Authors
Ñusta P. Carranza Ko, University of Baltimore
Abstract
Peru’s national health program Programa de Salud Reproductiva y Planificación Familiar (PSRPF) aimed to uphold women’s reproductive rights and address the scarcity in maternity related services. Despite these objectives, during PSRPF’s implementation the respect for women’s rights were undermined with the forced sterilization of women predominantly of indigenous, poor, and rural backgrounds. This study considers the forced sterilization of indigenous women as a genocide. Making the case for genocide has not been done previously with this particular case. Using the normative markers of the Genocide Convention, this study categorically sets forced sterilization victims from the state-led-policy as victims of genocide, considering the effects the health malpractice had on victims’ reproductive rights and the prevention of births of future indigenous populations. In doing so, this study proves the genocidal intent from the state to destroy in whole or in part, an ethnic minority group.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol14/iss2/8/
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Genocide Watch
Mar 29, 2021
Country Report: Peru
Anna Killen | March 2021
Peru is home to one of South America’s largest indigenous populations who have lived in the Andean and Amazonian regions for centuries. From 1996 to 2000, under President Alberto Fujimori, the Peruvian state performed coercive sterilizations on 272,000 women and 22,000 men. State officials targeted rural, poor and Indigenous people for sterilization procedures through bribes, threats and deception and performed tubal ligations and vasectomies without informed consent. The state used demographic manipulation to limit the future births of Indigenous people, hence destroying a large proportion of an ethnic minority. According to Article II of the 1948 Genocide Convention, ratified by Peru in 1960, the Programa de Salud Reproductiva y Planificación Familiar (PSRPF) constitutes a genocide that remains unrecognized. PSRFP is also referred to as the Programa Nacional de Población.
The Fujimori administration claimed PSRPF would reduce maternal and infant mortality and empower women to make more informed choices. In reality, Neo-Malthusian population notions inspired the racist campaign which perceived Indigenous people as ‘the cause of poverty’, seeking to tackle economic downturn by reducing their numbers. The state purposefully misinformed candidates of the practice and its effects, even kidnapping and forcibly sterilizing some victims. Severe malpractice and dehumanization is evident in the use of quotas and financial incentives which encouraged coercive practices and abuses of power. Health practitioners did not speak Indigenous languages or provide translators, heightening the misleading nature of the procedures. Additionally, a total lack of postoperative care or adequate use of anesthetics often led to health complications and to the deaths of 18 women. Survivors report serious mental and physical trauma, with victims struggling to bear the social stigma of infertility or return to their daily duties after invasive surgeries.
More:
https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/country-report-peru
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Interesting so many criminal things have happened to groups those in power believe can't protect themselves. Looks like something quite different from social evolution is happening.
