Copenhagen’s ‘Sorry’ Must Mark the Beginning and Not the End of Denmark’s Atonement

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen at the European Council, June 2024. Photo: European Council

It felt like whiplash. First the heartache on August 11, 2025 when Danish authorities once again forcibly separated an Inuit newborn, Aviaja-Luuna, from the embrace of her loving mother, Ivana Nikoline Brønlund, just one hour after what should have been the joyful celebration of her birth – based on the racist and discredited methodology of a parenting competence test that punishes victims of trauma with an even greater trauma, after years of misuse of such discriminatory and one can reasonably argue, culturally genocidal practices – and now forbidden under Danish law. Then, two weeks later, came new feelings of joy that justice long denied was at hand and that hope Denmark’s atonement had begun, when it was announced that Copenhagen had finally apologized for its moral trespass against the Inuit of Greenland for the equally disturbing forced contraception scandal, known as the Spiral case — as did Nuuk for its part in continuing such abhorrent practices, albeit with less frequency, after 1992.

But a closer look at this public mea culpa leaves a bittersweet aftertaste, caused in part by what feels like an underwhelming and half-hearted attempt to atone for the sins of its past. Can it be just a few short months ago the Danes and Greenlanders stood together shoulder to shoulder against the imperial ambitions of America, with the governments of Greenland and Denmark united as one, only to now confront such horror in their recent past?

The Spiral case is no secret, and has festered like an open wound for decades. At last, an apology has been issued. As The Guardian headlined on August 27: “Denmark issues first apology over forced contraception of Greenlandic women. Prime minister admits ‘systemic discrimination’ after thousands of girls and women fitted with IUDs without consent.” As Danish PM Mette Frederiksen has acknowledged: “We cannot change what has happened. But we can take responsibility. Therefore, on behalf of Denmark, I would like to say: Sorry.”

When ‘Sorry’ Isn’t Sufficient

But ‘Sorry’ seems to grossly understate the gravity of the offense, and demands a deeper act of contrition. ‘Sorry’ is what a misbehaving child will say to a parent demanding an apology when the child does not feel sorry one bit. Sorry, won’t happen again. Sorry, I’ll turn down the volume of my stereo. Sorry I was out late with my friends. Sorry. Offenses of this magnitude need much more than a sorry. They need generational healing. They deserve generous compensation. They need repeated acts of contrition, resignations, imprisonments. They need justice.

Danish PM Frederiksen further clarified: “I apologise to the girls and women who have been subjected to systemic discrimination. Because they are Greenlanders. For experiencing both physical and psychological harm. For being let down.” But this was not just discrimination. This was a state-led campaign to suppress Greenland’s birthrate. It was an assault on the very future of a people. “Sorry” doesn’t even come close.

Greenland PM Jens-Frederik Nielsen’s words also sound less than heartfelt and woefully insufficient as he apologized on behalf of Nuuk: “for the harm and abuse that may have been inflicted on several women after we took over responsibility for our healthcare system.” May have been. Such words seem reminiscent of former President Bill Clinton’s unimpressive parsing of the meaning of the word ‘is’ during his impeachment trial. And Naaja H. Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for justice and gender equality, further muddled the message of atonement in stating, “An apology is only fitting and I believe it was unavoidable in order to move forward on a path of healing. So I am very pleased by the apology but I also couldn’t see any way around it.” Only fitting. Unavoidable. Move forward on a path of healing. Couldn’t see any way around it. Why not just call Minister Nathanielsen the minister of platitudes and contradiction?

Greenland’s rep to the Danish parliament, IA party member Aaja Chemnitz, captures the joyful nature of this moment for its many victims, one so long in coming: “An apology is important for a renewed relation between Greenland and Denmark,” she said. “What a joy.”

Dark Chapters to Come to Light

But others remained disappointed. As Greenland’s PM Nielsen told the BBC: “For too long, the victims … have been silenced to death. It’s sad that an apology only comes now – it’s too late and too bad.” he said. “We cannot change what has happened. But we can take responsibility for the fact that the truth comes out, and that responsibility is placed where it belongs. The upcoming investigation will show the full extent of the assaults and help ensure nothing like this ever happens again.”

As Danish PM Frederiksen cautioned: “We must become more knowledgeable about our common past. Not because we can change it. But because we must acknowledge it. And learn from it,” – and from “other dark chapters that deal with systemic discrimination against Greenlanders. Because they were Greenlanders.” She explained her “apology on behalf of Denmark is also an apology for these other failures for which Denmark is responsible,” adding: “Where Greenlanders have been systemically treated differently and inferiorly than other citizens of the kingdom.”

Differently. Inferiorly. And critics argue, genocidal. This includes forced separations and intentional suppression of Greenland’s birth rate. Widespread pain, suffering and in many cases, irreversible sterility. A nearly universal lack of informed consent. Violations of the mind, body, and spirit leaving legacies of broken minds, bodies and spirits. Indeed, Greenland’s former prime minister, Múte B. Egede, rightly called the Spiral case a genocide. The same can be said of the other “dark chapters” the Danish PM alluded to, of which we will be learning more in the weeks and months ahead.

Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

Three of Article II’s sections appear to apply to Danish mistreatment of Greenlanders (though the Danes would likely disagree, perhaps explaining why their apology lacks the absolute genuineness one should expect given the severity of this mistreatment – namely sections b (Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group), d (Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group) and e (Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group).

Reasonable minds can disagree whether the mistreatment Greenlanders experienced meets the definition of genocide, which requires dark intent and not just dark actions. But at the very least, ‘Sorry’ and other half-hearted platitudes and equivocations must mark the beginning, and not the end, of the process of atonement.

Indeed, much more is needed – much, much more. The “dark chapters” that have transpired should not be either forgotten or forgiven. How they ultimately affect “Denmark’s Arctic ambitions and the cohesion of the Realm” remain to be seen. Let’s hope that Denmark steps up to the obligations that accompany a genuine apology, and shows through its future actions that it is truly repentant about its past – in a way that its newly articulated words of apology thus far do not.

Barry Zellen, PhD, is a Research Scholar in the Department of Geography at the University of Connecticut (UConn) and a Senior Fellow (Arctic Security) at the Institute of the North (IoN). He is the author, most recently, of Arctic Exceptionalism: Cooperation in a Contested World (Lynne Rienner Books, 2024) He has lived in Inuvik, NWT (1990-93), Yellowknife, NWT (1994-98), Whitehorse, Yukon (1988-89 and 1998-99), and Akureyri, Iceland (2020), and has worked for the Inuvialuit, Dene, Metis and Yukon First Nations.