Nauru is a parliamentary republic, and Parliament chooses the president and vice president from among its members.

David Adeang, a former finance minister, was selected as president in October 2023. Adeang became president following a successful no-confidence vote against his predecessor, Russ Kun, who took office in 2022.

The 19-member unicameral Parliament is popularly elected from eight constituencies for three-year terms.

The 2022 elections saw 17 incumbent lawmakers retain their seats, while 2 opposition parliamentarians were ousted. The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), which observed the elections, deemed the competition free and fair.

The electoral laws are generally fair and implemented impartially. The Nauru Electoral Commission is responsible for managing the entire election process. Voting is compulsory.

Although political parties are permitted, most candidates run as independents. Members of the Nauru 19 activist group, who were arrested for their 2015 antigovernment protests, have faced prosecution. The last imprisoned member, former cabinet minister Mathew Batsiua, was released in 2020.

Intense political rivalries created political instability prior to 2013. Following this period, former presidents Baron Waqa and Lionel Aingimea were able to serve full terms, but were succeeded by Russ Kun, who lost a no-confidence vote in October 2023. In the 2022 polls, 17 of the 19 parliamentary seats were retained by incumbents.

People’s political choices are generally free from domination by powerful interests that are not democratically accountable. In 2019, a former representative alleged that bribery was rife in the electoral process, claiming that candidates routinely buy items for constituents.

The constitution provides for universal suffrage. However, widely held biases regarding the role of women in society have discouraged women’s participation in politics and elections. Just two women won seats in Parliament in 2022, both of whom were incumbents. Including those two representatives, only three women have been elected in Nauru’s modern history.

The freely elected Parliament, led by the speaker, sets and makes policy. However, the Australian government has had considerable influence over politics due to the processing center for asylum seekers located in Nauru. Australian authorities have detained many refugees on the island indefinitely, providing a significant source of income for Nauru’s government.

In 2021, Nauru announced its intention to leave the PIF, which maintained significant influence over government policy and processes, after tensions grew over the appointment of a new general secretary. Nauru rescinded its withdrawal in 2022, contingent on guarantees that the PIF’s general secretariat be rotated between its Micronesian, Polynesian, and Melanesian regional blocs. Former president Waqa was appointed PIF secretary general in March 2023, which prompted criticism over his record on matters including bribery, judicial reform, and the Nauru 19 affair. Waqa’s term at the PIF had not begun by the end of 2023.

Corruption remains a problem. Allegations of improper payments to senior government officials, including President Adeang and former president Waqa, by an Australian phosphate company emerged in 2015. In 2021, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had charged the implicated company, Getax, with conspiracy to bribe a foreign public official. Those proceedings were ongoing at the end of 2023.

Many family members of Nauruan politicians reportedly owned shares of the land where the Australian-run processing center is situated; they disproportionately benefit from their ability to collect rents or secure high-paying jobs or other contracts there. Bribery in connection to Australian-run immigration facilities also remains a problem. In May 2023, the Guardian reported that the Australian government had paid Mozammil Gulamabbas Bhojani, a Nauruan businessman who was convicted of bribing two Nauruan officials in 2020, for refugee “accommodation services.” In July 2023, the incumbent Australian government said it would launch an inquiry into refugee-processing contracts.

Nauru lacks a law on access to public information, but the Government Information Office releases some budget figures. Government officials are not required to disclose financial information.

Freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed but not always respected in practice. Foreign journalists have a particularly difficult time operating in Nauru, as the government has implemented restrictions, including a visa application fee, that are apparently aimed at deterring outside coverage of conditions for asylum seekers and refugees.

The 2016 Crimes Act introduced criminal charges for defamation, now punishable with up to three years in prison. Similarly, the Administration of Justice Act, a contempt-of-court law passed in 2018, deters journalists from publishing pieces that are critical of the government and the judiciary.

The constitution provides for freedom of religion, which the government generally respects in practice.

Academic freedom is generally respected.

Authorities are not known to illegally monitor private online communications. However, the National Disaster Risk Management (Amendment) Act 2020 outlaws publishing or posting messages on social or mass media intended to cause fear, mislead the public, or distort official information, with severe punishments. The law also expanded police powers to act in a national disaster without a warrant.

The Guardian reported in 2022 that Canberra engaged private security contractors to surveil asylum seekers detained in Nauru, particularly those thought to be linked to Australian media, lawyers, and advocates. The intelligence reports prepared by security contractors were circulated among various Nauruan and Australian government entities, including the Australian Border Force (ABF) and the AFP. Some former detainees have speculated that they were singled out and poorly treated because they were subjects of surveillance.

The constitution upholds the right to assemble peacefully, but this right has not always been respected in practice. Demonstrations related to the treatment of asylum seekers housed at the Australian processing center are often repressed.

The government imposed COVID-19 public-health restrictions on gatherings to curb the virus’s spread after its first outbreak in 2022. Nauru’s COVID-19 task force was disbanded in July 2023.

There are no legal restrictions on the formation of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Nauru. There are several advocacy groups for women, as well as development-focused and religious organizations. However, authorities have interfered with the operations of activists seeking to improve the treatment of asylum seekers.

The Registration of Associations Act (RAA) of 2020 provides official recognition of domestic and foreign NGOs, including provisions allowing registered associations to own property and sue or be sued. Eligible organizations are required to register prior to commencing their operations, and the registrar must provide reasons for any refusal or cancellation decisions.

There are no formal trade unions and only limited labor protection laws, partly because there is little large-scale private employment. The rights to strike and to collectively bargain are not protected by law. Trade unions were expressly excluded from the RAA, meaning they do not enjoy its benefits.

There have been concerns that the judiciary is unduly influenced by government officials, who have been accused of dismissing judges for unfavorable rulings. Many were concerned that government officials pressured the judiciary in connection with the Nauru 19 case.

The Supreme Court is the highest authority on constitutional issues in Nauru. Appeals had previously been heard in the High Court of Australia, but in 2018 the country began severing links with Australia’s justice system, ostensibly to reduce costs and to establish greater independence. Some skeptics viewed the development as a means of denying members of the Nauru 19 activist group an avenue to appeal their cases. The group’s members were ultimately convicted and sentenced in 2019. Nauru later signed memorandums with neighboring Pacific countries, including Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, to provide justices for the Court of Appeals.

The Nauruan government has been accused of interfering with the judicial process and undermining the rule of law. A 2018 contempt-of-court law outlaws criticism of witnesses, judicial officers, or legal representatives in a pending court matter, as well as undermining judicial officials or the authority of courts. Violations of the law, which contains exemptions for government officials deemed to be acting in good faith or the interests of national security, are punishable by fines of up to AU$20,000 (US$13,300) for individuals and AU$50,000 (US$33,200) for corporations.

Though the constitution provides for due process rights, the legal proceedings against members of the Nauru 19 and changes to the appellate jurisdiction indicate that due process is not always respected in practice. Public servants who testify in favor of the government are distinguished legally from those testifying against it.

Civilian authorities control the small police force. Nauru has no armed forces; Australia provides defense assistance under an informal agreement.

The Australian processing center for asylum seekers has received considerable international criticism for poor treatment of asylum seekers housed there. Few arrests have been made in connection with alleged abuses of its residents.

The constitution provides for equal treatment regardless of race, country of origin, ethnicity, politics, or gender, but those rights are not always protected in practice. There are few legal protections against discrimination, which is notably a problem for women in the workplace. Same-sex sexual relations were decriminalized in 2016.

Refugees and asylum seekers forcibly transferred to Nauru under its agreement with Australia have faced abuse. Crimes committed against asylum seekers outside the processing center, where most refugees have been housed, have frequently gone uninvestigated. Asylum seekers have suffered from grossly inadequate housing; denial of health care for life-threatening conditions; and a high rate of self-harm attempts among residents. In June 2023, the Australian government evacuated almost all asylum seekers who remained in the country, though two asylum seekers stayed because they faced legal charges in Nauru. The Australian government left the processing center empty but operational as a “contingency.” In October, the Guardian reported that Australian authorities had sent 11 people to Nauru a month before, though 8 of them subsequently returned to their home countries. Another 12 were sent to Nauru in November.

Most people in Nauru are free to move around the island. However, while asylum seekers were granted freedom of movement across the island in 2015, there have been limits on their ability to leave, and they have faced significant difficulties in obtaining employment and education. Many asylum seekers have lived in tents and converted storage containers at the processing center, where they were under heavy surveillance. In 2018, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) was asked by Nauruan officials to stop providing care for asylum seekers; MSF subsequently left the country, later claiming it had been forced out.

The government has withheld the passports of some political opponents in recent years, including at least three people associated with the Nauru 19, among them two former opposition lawmakers.

To prevent the introduction of COVID-19 into the country, Nauru stopped most international flights from landing in 2020 and imposed quarantine requirements for most international arrivals. Other movement restrictions, including curfews, were strictly enforced. In 2022, amid the country’s first outbreak, arriving flights from abroad were banned, though these restrictions were later eased. By November 2023, travelers were no longer required to carry a COVID-19 vaccination certificate.

The constitution protects the right to own property and people in Nauru freely establish businesses. In a 2019 ruling on the Nauru 19 case, Supreme Court justice Geoffrey Muecke said that the government maintained an unwritten blacklist under which the Nauru 19 were denied employment and the right to conduct business on the island.

Domestic violence, which mostly affects women, remains a serious problem. Children are also vulnerable to violence, despite official efforts to address these problems. In 2020, the government simplified the process for victims of domestic violence to obtain safety and protection orders against their abusers. The government also announced then that it would introduce harsher laws for sex offenders, including by reducing the ability of sex offenders to receive bail and introducing laws that prevent the age of the perpetrator a mitigating factor in sex offences. Marital rape is a criminal offense.

Same-sex marriage is not recognized by law. Abortion is only allowed when the mother’s life is in danger, but not in cases of rape.

With the exception of asylum seekers, individuals generally enjoy equal economic opportunities. However, economic opportunities are limited to sectors such as phosphate mining and the public sector. There are no health and safety laws to protect workers outside the public sector, and issues relating to dust exposure for phosphate miners are of serious concern.