Gradual Transition: the Greenland Reconciliation Commission in a Legal Context

The Greenland Reconciliation Commission (GRC, 2013–2017) is one of a series of recent truth and reconciliation processes in stable northern democracies. However, the GRC’s objectives differed in important respects from those of recent and ongoing truth and reconciliation commissions in Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Reflecting Greenland’s unique position in international law, the GRC was intended to facilitate Greenland’s gradual transition towards sovereignty. To this end, the GRC’s mandate emphasised internal reconciliation within Greenland, rather than attempting to reconcile the Greenlanders to ongoing coexistence with a colonising Other. The GRC also did not attempt to produce a systematic historic record, though its recommendations identified the need for the Greenlanders to retell their history from their own perspective(s).