Excerpt and Photo from theguardian.com
Denmark is under pressure to stop subjecting Greenlandic people to “parenting competency” tests that campaigners say discriminate against them, amid uproar over the case of a mother whose baby was removed two hours after she gave birth.
The psychometric tests are widely used in Denmark as part of child protection investigations into new parents, and have long been criticised by human rights bodies as culturally unsuitable for Greenlandic people and other minorities.
The tests are back in the spotlight after the case of Keira Alexandra Kronvold, a woman of Greenlandic heritage who gave birth in North Jutland this month, sparked furious protests in Copenhagen and in Nuuk, the capital of the autonomous territory.
The Greenlandic minister for children, Aqqaluaq B Egede, held an urgent meeting with the Danish minister of social affairs and housing, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, last week. Afterwards, Egede said the Danish minister had promised to instruct municipalities to stop using the test. But the ensuing statement, issued last Wednesday, stopped short of an outright ban. “I would like to encourage the municipalities in cases involving families with a Greenlandic background to concretely consider stopping the use of the criticised tests,” Andersen said.