Vanuatu Archive Site for State Department information prior to January 20, 2001. This site is not updated. Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 30, 1997. 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. 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.