A review of the legislation of Vanuatu was undertaken at the Emalus Campus of the University of the South Pacific, in Port Vila, over a period of three weeks in December 1999. The initiative for the review came from the Office of the Ombudsman and was undertaken as part of a Good Governance Project of VANWIP (Vanuatu Women in Politics, a branch of the Vanuatu National Council of Women). The review was commissioned as part of a wider programme focusing on governance and accountability in Vanuatu, sponsored by the United Nations. It was undertaken by two Ni-Vanuatu law graduates of the University of the South Pacific, Betty Zinner-Toa and Velma Wano, under the author’s supervision. The purpose of the review was to identify legislation which contained provisions which were either directly or indirectly gender discriminatory, so that future recommendations could be made to propose changes or reforms to legislation.
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