Denmark's Western High Court ruled in May 2026 that the removal of Keira Alexandra Kronvold's newborn daughter by Danish authorities was illegal, finding that it breached her fundamental legal rights under the 1989 ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention. The court also ruled that the psychometric tests used to inform the decision to remove the child, Zammi, were outdated.

Zammi was taken from her mother when she was two hours old in November 2024 and placed in foster care after Kronvold underwent parental competence psychometric tests. Kronvold was told the test was to see if she was "civilised enough." Zammi is now 18 months old and living with a Danish foster family. The initial decision to remove her was made by Thisted Kommune.

The Danish government banned the tests on people with Greenlandic backgrounds in May 2025. Multiple Greenlandic parents living in Denmark, including Kronvold, remain separated from their children after undergoing the tests. It is the first time the Danish high court has ruled on the removal of children based on parental competence tests, and the ruling is expected to affect Greenlandic parents and their separated children whose cases date back to 1996, when Denmark ratified the ILO convention.

After receiving the news, Kronvold said: "I feel so amazing, I'm having a hard time to describe with words. I am trying to calm myself down. This is going to change every case in Denmark for Greenlandic people." She added: "I am still working to make sure there is change coming in for my children. This is for life, that's it. I'm not backing down."

The ruling will not directly lead to the reunification of Kronvold and her daughter because she has since been reassessed under a new system. Earlier that week, Kronvold lost a case in a lower court seeking reunification with her daughter, and her lawyers plan to appeal that ruling to the high court.

Gert Dyrn, a lawyer, said: "When the state made this new law last year they recognised they were in breach of the convention on Indigenous peoples and maybe of the European convention on human rights, which – in my opinion – the ruling today confirmed. This is a major victory for the Greenlandic community in Denmark." Dyrn said adult Greenlandic people removed from their parents as children could use the ruling to seek an apology from the Danish state or compensation. He also said: "There may be other women who have not been examined again according to the new law and they will probably be able to use this ruling to get their decisions nullified." Dyrn added: "Something is happening and that is a good thing."

In a separate intervention last week, the United Nations told Denmark that authorities' treatment of Kronvold "may amount to ethnic discrimination." Reem Alsalem, UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, wrote to the Danish government along with the UN special rapporteurs on the rights of Indigenous peoples and on contemporary forms of racism, asking it to answer questions about the treatment of Kronvold and other Greenlandic families. UN officials said the removal of Kronvold's children without consent "may be discriminatory and disproportionate" and said the decision cited "apparent disrespect to her decisions regarding procreation and contraception choices over the years and which clearly has caused her enormous psychological suffering." Officials also reminded Denmark of its "binding human rights obligations."

The Danish ministry of social affairs said in a letter it was ready to "engage constructively on the matters referred to in your letter" and proposed a meeting to discuss the issues in person. The ministry and Thisted Kommune declined to comment on the case.