Vanuatu

Offences against Morality

92. Abduction

No person shall, with intent to marry, have sexual intercourse with a female of any age, or to cause her to be married by or to have sexual intercourse with any other person, take her away or detain her against her will. Penalty: Imprisonment for 10 years.

Penal Code [Cap 135] 1981 – NALEX – English (PDF)

2. Interpretation

(1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears:

“exploitation” includes all forms of sexual exploitation (including sexual servitude and exploitation of another person’s prostitution), forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude and the removal of organs;

“specified means” means any of the following:

(a) threat;

(b) use of force or other forms of coercion;

(c) abduction;

(d) fraud;

(e) deception;

(f) abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability;

(g) giving or receiving payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person;

“trafficking in persons” means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person for the purpose of exploitation;

34. Offence of trafficking in persons

(1) A person must not engage in trafficking in a person or be involved in the arranging of trafficking in a person, knowing that the person’s entry into Vanuatu or any other state is or was arranged by specified means.

(2) If a person contravenes subsection (1), the person is guilty of an offence punishable on conviction by a term of imprisonment of not more than 10 years or a fine of not more than VT 50 million, or both.

35. Offence of trafficking in children

(1) A person must not intentionally engage in trafficking in a person who is a child or be involved in the arranging of trafficking in a person who is a child, regardless of whether the child’s entry into Vanuatu or any other state is or was arranged by specified means.

(2) If a person contravenes subsection (1), the person is guilty of an offence punishable on conviction by a term of imprisonment of not more than 15 years or a fine of not more than VT 75 million, or both.

37. Consent of trafficked person

For sections 35 and 36 it is not a defence that:

(a) the trafficked person consented to the intended exploitation; or

(b) the intended exploitation did not occur.

Counter Terrorism and Transnational Organised Crime [CAp. 313] 2005 – SHERLOC – English (PDF)

3. Registration of ministers for celebrating marriages

(1) The Minister responsible for religious affairs, upon receiving a requisition from the head of the denomination to which any minister of religion ordinarily officiating as such in Vanuatu belongs, may register such minister as a minister for celebrating  marriages  for the purposes of this Act. The Minister responsible for religious affairs may after consulting the head in Vanuatu of the denomination to which he belongs remove the name of any minister from the register. The Minister responsible for religious affairs shall publish in the Gazette the registration of every minister and the removal of the name of any minister from the register, which shall come into effect on the day of such publication.

(2) If any minister so registered dies or departs permanently from Vanuatu or is by the head of his denomination deprived of his office of minister, the Minister responsible for religious affairs, upon being satisfied of the facts, shall remove the name of such minister from the register.

(3) No  marriage  shall be rendered void by reason only of the same having been celebrated by a person not being a duly registered minister, if either of the parties to the  marriage  bona fide believes at the time that he was a duly registered minister.

(4) Whenever any person desires to be married solely by custom he shall before the  marriage  may be celebrated fulfil the pre-marital requirements of the custom under which he desires to be married. Any person wishing to contest the validity of such a  marriage  shall first prove that these requirements have not been fulfilled.

9. Marriages not to contravene Cap. 45

No  marriage  shall be celebrated in contravention of the provisions of the  Control of Marriage Act , Cap. 45. Every  marriage  shall be celebrated publicly. A  marriage  celebrated in contravention of the provisions of this section shall be deemed to be void.

10. Formalities of custom marriage

Every custom  marriage  shall be performed in a place and according to the form laid down by local custom.

13. Formalities of marriage celebrated before a minister for celebrating  marriages

Every  marriage  celebrated before a minister for celebrating  marriages  shall be performed according to the form practised by his denomination. In addition, to be valid it must include the expression by both parties thereto of their consent to the union thus contracted.

19. Offence to make false declaration to contract marriage

Any person who wilfully makes a false declaration in order to contract a  marriage  which would otherwise have been illegal shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding VT 50,000 or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 6 months, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

2. Age of marriage

No person of the male sex being under the age of 18 years and no person of the female sex being under the age of 16 years may lawfully marry.

3. Consent to marriage

No person being under the age of 21 years may lawfully marry without the consent of:

(a) his father and mother;

(b) in the event of either his father or mother being dead, the survivor;

(c) the two persons in whose effective charge he is;

(d) in the event of one or other of the persons referred to in paragraph (c) being dead, the survivor:

Provided that, if there is disagreement between the father and mother or between the persons referred to in paragraph (c) consent shall be deemed to have been given:

Provided further that, if consent is refused by the person or persons from whom it is required the magistrate’s court in the territorial jurisdiction of which the person to whom such consent has been refused resides may, notwithstanding such refusal, authorise the marriage.

4. Celebration of marriages

The principal celebrant of any marriage shall satisfy himself prior to the celebration of the said marriage:

(a) that the party or parties thereto, as the case may be, have attained the ages prescribed in section 2;

(b) that, if one or both the parties thereto, as the case may be, are under the age of 21 years, in respect of that or those parties, as the case may be, the provisions of section 3 of this Act have been complied with;

(c) that the parties thereto have freely expressed their consent before at least two witnesses or before the District Commissioner of the District in which they reside.

5. Forced marriage

No person shall compel another person of any age to marry against his will.

6. Invalidity of marriage

No marriage shall be valid unless the parties thereto have expressed their consent in the manner prescribed in paragraph (c) of section 4.

7. Penalties

(1) If any person acts in contravention of the provisions of sections 2 and 3 he shall be guilty of an offence and on conviction thereof shall be liable to a fine not exceeding VT 20,000.

(2) If any person acts in contravention of the provisions of section 4 he shall be guilty of an offence and on conviction thereof shall be liable to a fine not exceeding VT 50,000.

(3) If any person acts in contravention of the provisions of section 5 he shall be guilty of an offence and on conviction thereof shall be liable to a fine not exceeding VT 100,000, or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 2 years, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

1. Decree of nullity in respect of void marriages

A marriage is void and the Court shall pronounce a decree of nullity in respect thereof if it is proved –

(a) that the marriage was induced by duress or mistake; or

(b) that at the time of the marriage one of the parties was by reason of unsoundness of mind incapable of understanding the nature of the ceremony; or

(c) that the parties were within such prohibited degrees of consanguinity or affinity as the Court after considering such evidence on the matter as has been presented to it may determine to have been applicable to the parties at the time of their marriage; or

(d) that the marriage was not celebrated in due form.

2. Decree of nullity in respect of voidable marriages

(1) A marriage is voidable and upon the application of the petitioner the Court shall pronounce a decree of nullity in respect thereof, if it shall be proved –

(a) that the marriage has not been consummated owing to the incapacity or wilful refusal of the respondent to consummate the marriage; or

(b) that either party to the marriage was, at the time of the marriage, of unsound mind, or subject to recurrent fits of insanity or epilepsy; or

(c) that the respondent was, at the time of the marriage, suffering from venereal disease in a communicable form; or

(d) that the respondent was, at the time of her marriage, pregnant by some other person than the petitioner:

Provided that in the cases specified in paragraphs (b), (c) and (d), the Court shall not grant a decree unless it is satisfied –

(i) that the petitioner was, at the time of the marriage, ignorant of the facts alleged;

(ii) that proceedings were instituted within a year of the date of the marriage; and

(iii) that sexual intercourse with the consent of the petitioner has not taken place since the discovery by the petitioner of the existence of grounds for a decree.

(2) Any child born of a marriage avoided in pursuance of paragraphs (b), (c) and (d) of subsection (1) shall be a legitimate child of the parties thereto notwithstanding that the marriage is so avoided.

(3) Nothing in this section shall be construed as validating any marriage which is by law void but with respect to which a decree of nullity has not been granted.