Greenland is a unique entity in international, a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark. Occupied at different times by Peoples arriving from the West (Inuit) and the East (Iceland and later Norway-Denmark), it was registered as a Danish colony within the United Nations but formally integrated into Denmark and decolonized in 1953. Since then, Greenlandic (Kalaallit or Greenlandic Inuit) claims for self-determination have grown. In the 1970s, Denmark accepted that the Kalaallit were an Indigenous People; but since 2009 have recognized that the Kalaallit are a People in international law. This means that the Danish government and parliament accept that the Kalaallit have a right to self-determination under international law. At the heart of the right to self-determination is the principle that the People of a territory determine the form of their government, whether that be as part of another State (integration), a partnership with another State (free association) or complete independence.

Various steps are being taken in Greenland towards the realization of this right, including the relocation of decision-making in Greenland on important issues, including mineral resource activities, and the drafting of a constitution. Numerous inquiries and campaigns regarding historic and in some cases ongoing human rights violations committed by Danish authorities against Kalaallit are also pushing the calls to loosen the ties with the Kingdom of Denmark. Meanwhile, other countries and entities, not least the United States of America and the European Union, are expressing increasing interest in Greenland, recognizing its importance to security in the North Atlantic and the Arctic as well as its reserves of critical minerals. This presentation explains the history of Greenland within the context of international law; the status of the Greenlanders as a People; past, current and potential steps towards increased self-determination; the expressed views of Greenland's government; and Greenland's political and economic partnerships.

Rachael Lorna Johnstone is a professor of law at the University of Akureyri. She also holds a part-time professorship at Ilisimatusarfik (University of Greenland). She is a Fulbright Arctic Initiative IV scholar.

Professor Johnstone specialises in Polar law: the governance of the Arctic and the Antarctic under international and domestic law. She has published widely on decolonisation under international law, the rights of Indigenous Peoples, international human rights law, governance of extractive industries in the Arctic, international environmental law, state responsibility and due diligence, and Arctic strategies. Her books include Routledge Handbook of Polar Law (Routledge 2023) with Yoshifumi Tanaka and Vibe Ulfbeck, Regulation of Extractive Industries: Community Engagement in the Arctic (Routledge 2020) with Anne Merrild Hansen, Arctic Governance in a Changing World (Rowman and Littlefield 2019) with Mary Durfee, and Offshore Oil and Gas Development in the Arctic under International Law: Risk and Responsibility (Brill 2015).

Professor Johnstone is an active member of the International Law Association, the American Society of International Law, and three thematic networks of the University of the Arctic: on Arctic Law; on Decolonization of Arctic Library and Archives Metadata; and on Sustainable Resources and Social Responsibility. She leads the subgroup of the Thematic Network on Arctic Law on Arctic Archives. She is a former member of the board of the Icelandic Human Rights Center. She is also a member of the Arctic Circle Mission Council on Greenland in the Arctic and serves on the advisory board of the Polar Research and Policy Initiative. She is the deputy member for Iceland on the Social and Human Working Group of the International Arctic Science Committee.

Professor Johnstone holds a doctorate in juridical science from the University of Toronto (2004), an M.A. in Polar Law from the University of Akureyri (2014), an LL.M. (magna cum laude) in Legal Theory from the European Academy of Legal Theory (2000) and an LL.B. (Hons) from the University of Glasgow (1999).