An elected Nauru Island Council serves as the local government and provides public services. All changes in government have occurred peacefully and in accordance with the constitution, and multiple candidates competed in recent parliamentary elections. There have been ad hoc political parties since independence, but politics is based generally on personal loyalties and occasionally on issue-based coalitions. The government respects freedom of speech and of the press. There is no regular independent news publication, but the government puts out an information bulletin.
Freedom of religion is respected in law and in practice.
Freedoms of assembly and association is respected. Workers have the constitutional right to form independent unions, but successive governments have generally discouraged labor organizing, and no trade unions have formed. There is no legal basis for collective bargaining or holding strikes, and these activities rarely occur in practice. The private sector employs only one percent of all salaried workers. The judiciary is independent, and the right to public trial is upheld.