Pitcairn Island passed law to allow same-sex marriage

Pitcairn Island, the world’s smallest country by population, legalised same-sex marriage. The law change was unanimously approved by the local council.

Although the news was made public on 22 June 2015 but it had come into effect on 15 May 2015. The new law wasn’t published online by the Island, as its website encountered some technical issues.

Pitcairn Island, a tiny speck in the Pacific with a small population of 48 people, passed the law on suggestion of British authorities. The law was passed after England, Wales and Scotland legalised the same-sex marriage in 2014.

Pitcairn Islands
The Pitcairn Islands, officially named the Pitcairn Group of Islands, are a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the last British Overseas Territory in the Pacific.  It was settled by mutineers of the British navy vessel Bounty and their Tahitian companions in 1790.

The four islands – Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno – are spread over several hundred miles of ocean and have a total land area of about 47 square kilometres (18 sq mi). Only Pitcairn, the second largest island measuring about 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) from east to west, is inhabited.

The United Nations Committee on Decolonization includes the Pitcairn Islands on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.

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