Indigenous Peoples

• Author: International Law Group

The U.S. established an airbase in Thule, Greenland (then a Danish colony) in 1951 near the Uummannaq settlement of about 100 polar Eskimos. The airbase limited their hunting grounds. Two years later, the Danish government relocated the Eskimo settlement of 132 people and its facilities to Qaanaaq, about 90 miles to the North. Denmark later admitted that the resettlement had been wrongful.

In the meantime, Greenland has achieved a greater measure of sovereignty. Thus, the Danish Home Rule Act (No. 577 of 29 November 1978) provides that "1.(1) Greenland is a distinct community within the Kingdom of Denmark. ... [T]he Greenland Home Rule authorities shall conduct Greenland affairs in accordance with the provisions laid down in this Act. ..."

Representatives of the "Thule Tribe" brought a lawsuit in 1996 against the Danish government in the High Court in Copenhagen. They claimed that the tribe was an "indigenous tribal people" under the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries [June 27, 1989, 28 I.L.M. 1382 (1982), in force for Denmark, Feb. 22, 1997].

The suit challenged both the 1953 relocation and the 1951 U.S.- Denmark Agreement Concerning the Defense of Greenland [2 U.S.T. 1485; T.I.A.S. 2292; 94 U.N.T.S. 35; April 27, 1951] which allowed the U.S. to set up military bases on Greenland.

In 1999, SIK, the Greenlandic trade union, brought a complaint before the ILO. It argued that Denmark had contravened the ILO Convention because of the resettlement of the Thule Tribe and the consequential loss of their hunting and trapping opportunities. The ILO dismissed that complaint, stating that it cannot resolve individual land disputes under the Convention.

Traditionally, Greenlanders do not recognize individual land rights. Since the tribal members at issue now live in different parts of Greenland, designating the former settlement as their property would seemingly fail to comport with the Greenlandic system of collective land rights. The ILO Convention requires governments to establish procedures for resolving such land disputes, and such do exist in this case. Thereafter, Denmark complied with Article 14(3) of the Convention. The ILO Governing Body adopted the Report in March 2001, thus disposing of SIK's case.

In August 1999, the Danish High Court, 3rd Division, awarded the tribe compensation of DKK 500,000 [about U.S. $85,000]. The tribe appealed, demanding...