The government is stopping controversial tests of Greenlandic parents.

The Danish government is stopping controversial psychological tests of Greenlandic parents

***************************************************************

The controversial psychological tests have been a hot potato in the relationship between Greenland and Denmark.

After Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) and Greenland's government leader, Mute B. Egede, held a joint press conference a week ago, it was announced that a solution had been found. Now it has been presented. (Photo: © Mads Claus Rasmussen, Ritzau Scanpix)

By Emil Eller ([email protected]) 47 minutes ago updated 3 minutes ago

The Danish and Greenlandic governments have agreed to completely stop the use of controversial psychological tests of Greenlandic parents.

The Social and Housing Ministry announced this.

The psychological tests can be used by Danish municipalities in all cases involving the placement of children - for example, when assessing whether a child should be forcibly removed.

However, in cases where the parents have a Greenlandic background, they will now be stopped.

The psychological tests have been criticized for not being suitable for testing Greenlanders, as they are not tailored to Greenlandic culture - and as a result, they may have given a distorted picture of the parents' ability to care for their own children.

In the tests, parents are evaluated in Danish, even though it is not their first language.

At the same time, Greenlandic parents have been evaluated based on tests of facial expressions and figures, which have been developed for Western cultures, but which are criticized for not taking into account Greenlandic culture.

-----------------------

Situation at freezing point

-----------------------

It has been up to the municipalities themselves whether they want to use the tests, and several municipalities have themselves chosen to drop them, while others have continued.

The test of the parents' ability to be parents has been a hot potato in the relationship between Denmark and Greenland.

As late as at the end of December, the leader of Greenland's government, Múte B. Egede, directly appealed to Mette Frederiksen to stop the use of the tests.

In this connection, he said that the relationship between Denmark and Greenland is "at a freezing point."

Now, the two governments have found a solution together.

Social and Housing Minister Sophie Hæstorp Andersen has otherwise insisted that she did not have the opportunity to stop the municipalities' use of the controversial tests - even though she would have liked to.

In November, she sent a letter to the municipalities and urged them to stop using them.

However, there is now a way to stop the psychological tests. The government will stop it with a legislative proposal that will take effect from May this year.

---------------------

Looking at cases again

---------------------

In addition to stopping the controversial tests, the government is also setting up a special unit with knowledge of the Greenlandic language and culture, which will help municipalities in child custody cases.

The special unit will also look at current cases of child placement, where the treatment has used the psychological tests.

If the unit determines that the test has led to an incorrect overall assessment of the parents' abilities, it will contact the municipality to have them reconsider the case.

Social and Housing Minister Sophie Hæstorp Andersen (S) writes in a press release that the government has listened to the concerns of the Greenlandic government.

- It is my hope that the solution will give Greenlanders in Denmark peace of mind and a sense of security again, she writes.

The article is updated.

Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=undefined )

Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.