Vanuatu
A combined view of Vanuatu's UN General Assembly speeches, treaty commitments, and voting record.
The narrative paragraphs below are AI-generated syntheses of the data shown — the tables and figures themselves come directly from the underlying records, not from the AI.
Compare with another country →Speech history
Over 15 years, Vanuatu's General Assembly rhetoric has remained consistently anchored in multilateralism (averaging 82), though with meaningful evolution in emphasis and accountability framing. Early speeches (2006–2014) focused on moral appeals around UN reform, climate vulnerability, and decolonization, with relatively low self-accountability and concreteness. From 2015 onward, Vanuatu's addresses grew more concrete and data-driven—especially following the 2015 Paris Agreement and SDG adoption—while emotional intensity declined and self-accountability gradually increased, culminating in the 2022 speech's notably high concreteness (78) and self-accountability (62). By 2023–2025, Vanuatu balanced concrete reporting of its own crises and climate initiatives with continued outward calls for multilateral financial and institutional reform, suggesting a speaker learning to blend vulnerability advocacy with demonstrated national action.
| Session | Multilateralism | Emotional intensity | Concreteness | Self-accountability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | High | High | Medium | Medium |
| 2007 | High | High | Medium | Low |
| 2009 | Very High | High | Medium | Medium |
| 2011 | Very High | High | Medium | Low |
| 2013 | High | High | High | Medium |
| 2014 | High | High | Medium | Low |
| 2015 | Very High | Medium | High | Low |
| 2016 | Very High | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| 2018 | Very High | High | Medium | Medium |
| 2019 | Very High | Medium | High | Medium |
| 2020 | Very High | Medium | High | Medium |
| 2022 | Very High | High | High | High |
| 2023 | High | Medium | High | Medium |
| 2024 | Very High | Medium | High | Low |
| 2025 | Very High | High | High | Low |
Treaty status
Full treaty record →Vanuatu has achieved perfect ratification across all 24 tracked treaties, with particular strength in environmental commitments (10 of 24), reflecting its acute vulnerability as a Pacific small island developing state. Its embrace of climate architecture—from the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol through the Paris Agreement and Kigali Amendment—aligns closely with its speeches' sustained focus on climate justice and multilateral environmental action. Strong ratification across human rights (5), arms control (4), and trade governance (3) instruments further demonstrates Vanuatu's broad institutional integration, with no recorded withdrawals or reservations among the tracked instruments.
Arms control & security
- Arms Trade TreatyRatified
- Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban TreatyRatified
- Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their DestructionRatified
- Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear WeaponsRatified
Environment & climate
- Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their DisposalRatified
- Convention on Biological DiversityRatified
- Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone LayerRatified
- Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeRatified
- Minamata Convention on MercuryRatified
- Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone LayerRatified
- Paris AgreementRatified
- Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International TradeRatified
- Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic PollutantsRatified
- United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in AfricaRatified
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeRatified
Human rights
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or PunishmentRatified
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against WomenRatified
- Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesRatified
- Convention on the Rights of the ChildRatified
- International Covenant on Civil and Political RightsRatified
International justice
- Rome Statute of the International Criminal CourtRatified
Trade & governance
- United Nations Convention against CorruptionRatified
- United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized CrimeRatified
- United Nations Convention on the Law of the SeaRatified
Voting record
Full voting record →Vanuatu voted affirmatively in 67% of recorded General Assembly votes (2,838 of 4,265), abstained in 8%, and voted no in only 8 cases, placing it firmly in the consensual mainstream. The two notable dissents—opposing resolutions on Palestinian natural resources sovereignty (1996) and Guam's status (1990)—represent isolated deviations from otherwise consistent alignment with General Assembly consensus, suggesting either historical shifts in voting protocol or rare strategic departures on territorial or sovereignty matters.
Notable dissents from consensus
Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly
1996-12-16 · voted N · 98% voted yes
Question of Guam : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly
1990-11-20 · voted N · 97% voted yes
Human development
Full HDI record →Human Development Index: 0.621 (Medium), ranked #146 globally in 2023.
Combines life expectancy, education, and income into one comparable score, 0 to 1. Source: UNDP Human Development Report 2025 — deterministic figures, not AI-generated.
2005–2023