United States Department of State, U.S. Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices 1996 - Vanuatu, 30 January 1997, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6aa2f0.html [accessed 6 June 2023]
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Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 30, 1997 Vanuatu, a small South Pacific island nation of approximately 170,000 people which was jointly administered by Britain and France prior to its independence in 1980, has a parliamentary form of government with a 50-member Parliament, a Prime Minister, and a President. The latter's powers are largely ceremonial, except when acting on the advice of the Council of Ministers. Political legitimacy is based on majority rule. The civilian authorities normally control the small police and paramilitary Vanuatu Mobile Force, however, a brief mutiny in October by elements of the VMF over pay issues shook the principle of civilian control. The mutiny was resolved without bloodshed. Subsistence and small-scale agricultural production and fishing support more than 80 percent of the population. Copra, cocoa, and beef cattle are the main cash crops. The service sector government, tourism, and an offshore financial center provides most formal employment and represents the largest component of the country's gross domestic product. Government control over much of the country's media, attempts to interfere with the independence of the judiciary, together with discrimination and violence against women, remain the major human rights problems.
Respect for Human Rights
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing
There were no reports of political or other extrajudicial killings.
b. Disappearance
There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.
c. Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Constitutional provisions against torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment are observed in practice and enforced by the courts. The law provides that prisoners shall have recourse to the Ombudsman, a constitutional position. Prison conditions meet minimum international standards, and the Government permits visits by human rights monitors, if requested.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
There were no reports of arbitrary arrests. Arrest is by warrant. The Constitutional provision that suspects must be informed of the charges and given a speedy hearing before a judge is observed in practice. There is no exile.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The courts are normally free of military or executive interference. The courts uphold constitutional provisions for a fair public trial, presumption of innocence until guilt is proven, prohibition against double jeopardy, the right of judicial determination of the validity of arrest or detention, and appeal to the Supreme Court. However, the executive has tried to pressure the largely expatriate judiciary in cases with political implications (see Section 2.d.). There were no reports of political prisoners.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence
There were no reports of arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and the press; however, these provisions have not always been honored in practice. The Government controls much of the country's media, including a weekly newspaper, one AM and one FM radio station, and a limited-service television station confined to the capital, Port Vila, which provides English and French news service three times a week. In late 1994, an independent weekly, which has since expanded into semiweekly editions, began publishing. Opposition political parties and groupings occasionally publish newsletters, one of which developed into a newsweekly by mid-year. The December 1995-February 1996 coalition government headed by Prime Minister Serge Vohor continued the previous government's policy of pressuring both government-owned and private media to limit the presentation of views with which it did not agree. A minister implicitly threatened to revoke the residency permit of the expatriate publisher of the independent semiweekly newspaper for allegedly irresponsible reporting. As the political crisis intensified just prior to the parliamentary vote that unseated the Vohor government in late February, Vohor ordered a broadcast ban on all information relating to his resignation revocation and the forthcoming extraordinary session of Parliament. The Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) condemned the ban. Some pressures on the media lessened following Parliament's selection of Maxime Carlot Korman to replace Vohor in February. However, the Carlot Korman government continued to restrict news disseminated by the government-controlled media. In May it banned Radio Vanuatu from broadcasting a Vohor press statement criticising the Supreme Court decision upholding the legality of the parliamentary vote which had unseated him. The Government reportedly also instructed Radio Vanuatu to submit all political statements and news items for prior review. Following a shift in political alliances, in September Parliament voted no confidence in the Carlot Korman government, and reelected Vohor as Prime Minister. Immediately following his reelection, Vohor promised to support press freedom. Vanuatu governments have not been as concerned over media reports directed to external audiences. PACNEWS, a Pacific regional news agency located in Vanuatu since 1994, continued to transmit stories throughout the region even when they included criticism of the country's leaders. Correspondents for international media are also allowed to report without interference.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Permits must be obtained to hold public demonstrations and rallies; usually they are routinely granted. The Government does not restrict the forming of political parties and other groups.
c. Freedom of Religion
The law provides for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respected it in practice. Missionaries of various Christian denominations work without restriction. The Government apparently has not attempted to enforce the 1995 Religious Bodies Act, which the President refused to sign on constitutional grounds. The act gives the Government the right to register and potentially to control the activities of religious organizations.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
All citizens are free to travel internally and externally and to return from abroad without restrictions. The Government has not formulated a policy regarding refugees, asylees, or first asylum. The issue of the provision of first asylum has never arisen. Various governments have used their immigration powers to expel, or try to expel, as undesirable immigrants, expatriates with whom they were displeased. A minister in the first Vohor government (December 1995-February 1996) implicitly threatened to revoke the residency permit of the expatriate publisher of an independent, semiweekly newspaper for allegedly irresponsible reporting (see Section 2.a.). The Carlot Korman government, in power from February to September, declared two expatriate jurists associated with the previous Vohor government undesirable immigrants. One was an Australian lawyer, who had unsuccessfully contested in court the legality of the February parliamentary session that elected Carlot Korman as prime minister. The other was a jurist, who the Vohor government had brought to Vanuatu before its ouster with the intention of appointing him a Supreme Court justice. Both departed the country in March. The second Vohor Government in October threatened to fire and expel the Supreme Court Chief Justice, who had sought to use the Court's judicial powers to issue warrants against leaders of a VMF mutiny in contravention of a cabinet promise that the mutineers would not be punished. His expulsion was suspended while the Court heard his appeal of the immigration order.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to Change Their Government
The Constitution provides for parliamentary elections every 4 years, through which citizens can freely change their government. The general elections held in November 1995 did not give a majority to any of the three main political parties. Since the election, two short-lived coalition governments have held office. The present Government, also a coalition led by Prime Minister Serge Vohor, assumed office in October. While outside observers generally consider the November 1995 voting to be fair, the Government's influence on the media prevented opposition parties from fully publicizing their views. That government, as well as successor governments, have also been accused of politically biased employment practices. Traditional attitudes, in which males are dominant and females are frequently limited to customary family roles, hamper women from taking a more active role in economic and political life. One member of parliament is a woman, who also served briefly as a cabinet minister in the current government. A woman is mayor of the second largest town.
Section 4 Governmental Attitudes Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights
There are no restrictions on the formation of local human rights organizations, and Vanuatu's first, the Human Rights Forum, was founded in 1994.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion, Disability, Language, or Social Status
The 1980 Constitution provides fundamental rights and freedoms to "all persons...without discrimination on the grounds of race, place of origin, religious or traditional beliefs, political opinions, language, or sex." Despite constitutional and legal protections, women remain victims of discrimination in this tradition-based society. Due to high rates of unemployment, there are few jobs available to the disabled.
Women
Violence against women, particularly wife beating, is believed to be common, although no accurate statistics exist. Courts occasionally prosecute offenders using common law assault as a basis for prosecution since there are no specific laws against wife beating. However, most cases of violence against women, including rape, go unreported because women, particularly in rural areas, are reluctant to report them for fear of further abuse. In addition police are frequently reluctant to intervene in what are considered to be domestic matters. While women have equal rights under the law, they are only slowly emerging from a traditional culture characterized by male dominance, a general reluctance to educate women, and a widespread belief that women should devote themselves primarily to childbearing. In announcing Vanuatu's ratification of the U.N. Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) at the 1995 U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing, the then-Deputy Prime Minister stated that it would take time to implement the laws giving equal rights to women. The majority of women enter into marriage through "bride-price payment," a practice that encourages men to view women as property. Women are also inhibited by tradition from owning land, and at least one women's advocate believes this limitation serves to underpin their secondary status. Many female leaders view village chiefs as a major obstacle to attaining social, political and economic rights for women. The National Council of Women organized seminars prior to the November 1995 general elections to increase women's awareness of their political rights.
Children
Although the Government has made education a priority, access to education is limited and school attendance is not compulsory. Children are protected within the traditional extended-family system. Members of the extended family, particularly paternal uncles, play an active role in a child's development. As a result, virtually no children are homeless or abandoned. There is no societal pattern of abuse, although cases of child abuse are occasionally reported.
People with Disabilities
There is no known governmental or national policy on the disabled and no legislation mandating access for them. Their protection and care is left to the traditional extended family and to voluntary nongovernmental organizations.
National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Most of the population is made up of Melanesians. Small minorities of Chinese, Fijians, Vietnamese, Tongans, and Europeans are generally concentrated in two towns and on a few plantations; they experience discrimination with regard to land ownership. There is no evidence to suggest a pattern of ethnic discrimination in the provision of the limited basic services which the Government provides.
Section 6 Worker Rights.
a. The Right of Association
The law provides workers with the right to organize unions. Unions may not affiliate with international labor federations without government permission. Approximately 29,000 persons participate in the formal economy as wage earners. There are five trade unions. The unions are grouped under an umbrella organization, the Vanuatu Council of Trade Unions, a member of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. The trade unions are independent of the Government and ran a number of candidates under the Labor Party banner in the November 1995 general elections, although no Labor candidate was elected to Parliament or received more than a small percentage of the votes. The high percentage of the population still engaged in subsistence agriculture and fishing deters extensive union activity. In addition membership in the Vanuatu Public Servants Union fell dramatically following the Government's wholesale dismissal of hundreds of full-time public servants during a protracted general strike in 1994. The Supreme Court in February 1994 ruled that the union had not complied with its own rules when it undertook the general strike and declared the strike illegal. Combined union membership in the private and public sectors reportedly has fallen from more than 4,000 to less than 1,000 in the aftermath of the 1994 strike. The law prohibits retribution if the strike is legal. In the case of private-sector employees, violations would be referred to the Labor Department for conciliation and arbitration. In the public sector, violations would be handled by the Public Service Commission. In August 1995, Parliament passed a law requiring unions to give 30 days' notice of intent to strike, with a list of the names of intending strikers. There was no significant strike activity in 1996.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
Unions exercise the right to organize and bargain collectively. Labor unions negotiate wages and conditions directly with management. If the two sides cannot agree, the matter is referred to a 3-member arbitration board appointed by the Minister of Home Affairs. The board consists of one representative from organized labor, one from management, and the senior magistrate of the magistrate's court. While a dispute is before the board, labor may not strike and management may not dismiss union employees. Unions and management, however, generally reach agreement on wages without having to refer the matter to arbitration. Complaints of antiunion discrimination are referred to the Commissioner of Labor. While the law does not require union recognition, once a union is recognized, it does prohibit antiunion discrimination. There are no export processing zones.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor, and there were no reports that either is practiced.
d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children
The law prohibits children under 12 years of age from working outside of family-owned agricultural production, where many children assist their parents. Employment of children from 12 to 18 years of age is restricted by occupational category and conditions of labor, for example, restrictions on employment in the shipping industry and on night-time employment. The Labor Department effectively enforces these laws.
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
Vanuatu has a legislated minimum wage, effectively enforced by the Labor Department. In February 1995, it was raised to a flat rate of approximately $143 (16,000 vatu) per month for both urban and rural workers. The previous minimum wage was approximately $93 for rural workers and $107 (13,200 vatu) for urban workers. The minimum wage would not support an urban family living entirely on the cash economy. Most families are not dependent solely on wages for their livelihoods. Various laws regulate the rights to sick leave, annual vacations, and other conditions of employment, including a 44-hour maximum workweek, with at least one 24-hour rest period weekly. Vanuatu's Employment Act, enforced by the Labor Department, includes provisions for safety standards. However, the 1987 safety and health legislation is inadequate to protect workers engaged in logging, agriculture, construction, and manufacturing, and the single inspector attached to the Labor Department is hard pressed to enforce the act fully. Workers have the right to remove themselves from dangerous work situations without jeopardy to their continued employment.
