Greenland to Ask Denmark to Compensate Illegitimate Children
Greenland wants former colonial master Denmark to compensate what could be thousands of people who were left legally fatherless after being born out of wedlock, a lawmaker from the territory said on Monday.
While all Danes have been able to find out who their father is since 1938, the same right was not given to people in Greenland, now an autonomous territory, until 1963 -- and in some parts of the world's largest island not until 1974.
"For me it's about principles ... It's about admitting that they were discriminated against," said Sara Olsvig, an MP representing Greenland's Inuit Ataqatigiit party in the Danish parliament.
She added that the size of the compensation was a "secondary" issue.
"Many of these families experienced a lot of shame," she said.
Many of the children have said they were discriminated against and bullied.
Thousands of children of workers from Denmark, the United States and the Faroe Islands -- but also of men from Greenland -- were left legally fatherless due to the law.
Copenhagen lawmakers were set to vote on a bill this week that would give all those affected the option to find out who there father was, but it will not entitle them to any inheritance if the father has already died and the estate has been settled.
Danish newspapers said the number of children could be as high as 5,000, without citing the source of the estimate. Greenland has a population of just 57,000.
A 2011 Danish government report said "the number was very significant and peaked in 1973, when 56 percent of all children were born out of wedlock".
The report found that racist attitudes towards Greenland, which was a Danish colony until 1953, was one of the reasons for the differing legal frameworks.
"During colonial times, Denmark considered Greenlanders immature and to be on a lower level culturally, which is why Danish rules on illegitimate children weren't deemed relevant," it said.
"There was outspoken concern that (changing the law) would lead to irresponsibility, especially among the women," it said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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