Vanuatu, Fiji, and Australia tell three very different stories about the rights of LGBTIQ people in the Pacific.

Global-Dispatches-The-Pacific ([link removed] )

Dear John,

In April 2026, Outright International published updated Country Overviews addressing the human rights and inclusion of people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics in 199 countries, including all 193 UN member states. Our Country Overviews cover recent legal and policy developments, human rights violations, social perceptions, movement goals and priorities, and the role of anti-gender forces. In our Country Overview Spotlight Series, we share highlights from two or three countries in a region, offering facts and analysis in a crucial tool for changemakers. This week’s Spotlight focuses on the Pacific.

In May 2025, Vanuatu's Parliament passed a constitutional amendment recognizing the rights and freedoms of "persons who are male or female at birth." Lawmakers grounded the change in what they described as "traditional Melanesian values and Christian principles."

The framing places trans, intersex, and gender-diverse people in Vanuatu outside the political community. It is only the latest in a series of legal and political attacks on queer inclusion: in 2024, parliament banned same-sex marriage, and the Ministry of Justice commissioned a committee to develop a national policy banning LGBTIQ advocacy.

Fiji's path is different, but it also raises alarms. Fiji decriminalized same-sex relations in 2010 and is one of only a handful of countries in the world with constitutional protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In April 2026, the Great Council of Chiefs, as part of a constitutional reform process, proposed removing those protections and ending the country's secular status. In recent months, three murders of community members—two trans women and a queer person—have heightened fear that legal regression and physical violence are moving in step.

Australia tells a third story. In February 2026, the state of Victoria passed legislation protecting children born with variations in sex characteristics from medically unnecessary surgeries, becoming the second jurisdiction in the country to do so after the Australian Capital Territory in 2023. The progress in intersex protections in particular was years in the making, led by intersex advocates working in coalition with allied movements. Trans people’s rights, too, have advanced: In July 2025, New South Wales became the last Australian state to enact legislation recognizing nonbinary gender, making national recognition a reality. In February 2025, the federal government extended hate crime protections to sexual orientation, gender identity, and intersex status. In contrast to these developments, Queensland restricted access to gender-affirming care for trans minors in 2025, demonstrating change is not linear.

Six Pacific island nations still maintain colonial-era laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy: Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Tuvalu. Aid cuts and donor retrenchment have stalled legal reform across the region. Australia's wins came from years of organizing backed by a sustained civil society infrastructure. The contrast matters.

Read the Pacific Country Overviews
([link removed] )

Share with anyone working on Pacific advocacy, asylum cases, or international development funding.

With pride,

Neela Ghoshal (any pronouns)

Senior Director of Law, Policy & Research

Outright International

P.S. For more than thirty years, the U.S. State Department has published annual human rights reports that documented violations against LGBTIQ people in every country. Since 2025, those sections have been stripped. The Country Overviews are our response. They are researched and written by Outright staff working alongside frontline activists, and they exist because our community refused to wait for permission to tell our own truths.

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