Kiribati

Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati (in English: Republic of Kiribati; in Gilbertese: Ribaberikin Kiribati /ribaberikin kiribas/), is an archipelago and island country located in the west central Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia. It is made up of a group of 33 coral atolls and the volcanic island of Banaba spread over an area of more than three million square kilometers. Notable among them is Kiritimati (Christmas Island), the largest atoll in the world and the first populated place on the planet to flip the calendar every year. It achieved its independence in 1979 and became a full member of the UN in 1999. Its capital and most populous city is South Tarawa.

Currently, due to its low average altitude, it would be one of the first countries to disappear due to the rise in sea level produced by the effects of climate change. It is estimated that this could happen in about ten or fifteen years. Due to this, there are plans to move the inhabitants to neighboring countries such as Australia and New Zealand.

Etymology

The archipelago was renamed from the French "îles Gilbert" (Gilbert Islands) by captains Krusenstern and Louis Isidore Duperrey, after the British captain Thomas Gilbert, who crossed the archipelago in 1788 The current name, Kiribati, is adapted from Gilberts, the old European name for the archipelago. Although in what is now known as Gilbertese, a colonial expression for the native language, the denomination for the Gilbert Islands is Tungaru, the new republic chose the name Kiribati for itself, as a recognition of inclusion of those islands that were never considered part of the Gilbert Archipelago.

History

Ancient times

The territory now called Kiribati was populated by an ethnic group from Micronesia who spoke the same Oceanic language for over 3,000 years before coming into contact with Europeans. The area was not isolated; Invaders from Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji introduced aspects of Polynesian and Melanesian culture. Marriages between villages tended to blur cultural differences and gave rise to a significant degree of cultural homogenization.

Colonial period

The islands were conquered by Spanish ships at the beginning of the 16th century. Between 1528-1707 the islands were conquered by ships commanded by two Portuguese and one Spanish: Fernando de Magallanes, Pedro Fernández de Quirós and Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón (Spanish rule was from 1528 to 1885). In 1820, the islands were renamed the Gilbert Islands by Russian admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern, after the British captain Thomas Gilbert, who crossed the archipelago in 1788 ("Kiribati" is the local possessive mode pronunciation of & #34;Gilbert' (Gilbert's)). The first English colonial settlement was founded in 1837. From 1892 the Gilbert Islands were a British protectorate along with the nearby Ellice Islands further south. Both archipelagos became colonies in 1916. Kiritimati (Christmas) Atoll became part of the colony in 1919 and the Phoenix Islands were added in 1937.

U.S. Marine assault on a Japanese bunker during the Tarawa Battle in November 1943.

Tarawa and other islands in the Gilbert group were occupied by Japan in World War II. Tarawa was the site of one of the bloodiest battles in the history of the United States Marine Corps. The Marines landed on November 20, 1943, the Battle of Tarawa was fought in the capital of Kiribati: Bairiki, on the Tarawa Atoll. In the 1950s, Christmas Island was the site of three major nuclear tests by the British government.

Independence

The Gilbert and Ellice Islands achieved self-government in 1971 and separated in 1975. Seven years later, in 1978, the Ellice declared their independence as the Republic of Tuvalu, while the Gilberts waited another year and became into an independent state on April 10, 1979. Since then, the United States has ceased to claim the Phoenix Islands, an archipelago in the Pacific southeast of the Gilbert Islands, and three other islands in the same area. All of them have since become part of the territory of Kiribati. These separations were covered by the ethnic and cultural differences of the inhabitants with respect to the Kiribati.

In the 1980s, overpopulation was a very serious problem: in 1988 it was announced that 4,700 residents of the main group of islands would be relocated to less populated islands. For those years, Kiribati was designated by the UN as one of the poorest countries in the world; this precipitated the arrival of humanitarian resources from several countries. Another UN report from 1989 showed that Kiribati would be one of the first countries to disappear as a result of rising sea levels due to global warming.

In 1994, Teburoro Tito was elected president. In 1995, there was a movement to move the International Date Line to the east so that the islands of the Republic of Kiribati would no longer be divided by this imaginary line, which at the time was controversial. The move, which followed through on one of President Tito's campaign promises, was intended to make Kiribati the first country to see sunrise on January 1, 2000 and be given the date to start the III millennium, an event of great importance for tourism. Tito was reelected in 1998. In 1999, Kiribati became part of the UN.

In 2002, there was controversy in Kiribati over a law to shut down all newspapers. The legislation led to the creation of the first non-governmental newspaper. Tito was re-elected in 2003 but, in March, he was removed from office by a vote of no confidence and replaced by a Council of State. In July of that same year, Anote Tong of the opposition Boutokaan Te Koaua party, was chosen to succeed Tito.

Currently, the archipelago is at risk of disappearing due to the rise in the level of the Pacific Ocean caused by climate change. President Anote Tong has announced that the islands will disappear and has begun an international tour to find an adoptive homeland for their compatriots, until now only answered by New Zealand. In March 2012, the purchase of land from Fiji to relocate the entire population was raised in parliament due to the rise in sea level and the greater frequency of natural disasters such as hurricanes and torrential rains.

In the 2015-2016 Kiribati Parliamentary Elections the Pillars of Truth alliance won a majority in the country's parliament.

Currently, in the framework of the COVID-19 Pandemic, it is the last country in Oceania to declare its first case.

Government and politics

Kiribati Parliament

Kiribati Parliament.

Kiribati's politics are based on the republican parliamentary democratic presidential system, where the president (called Beretitenti ) is the head of government, framed in a multi-party system and elected by direct popular vote.

Executive power is exercised by the President of the Republic, a vice president and the cabinet of ministers.

Legislative power is exercised by the House of Assembly (Maneaba ni Maungatabu), 45 members, of whom 44 are elected for four-year terms in 23 constituencies, while the remainder He is an unelected delegate from the Banaba Kiribati community on Fiji's Rabi Island.

The Judiciary is independent of the Executive and the Legislative and is made up of the Supreme Court and the lower courts.

The Government of Kiribati is governed by the current National Constitution, promulgated on July 12, 1979.

Human Rights

In terms of human rights, regarding membership of the seven bodies of the International Bill of Human Rights, which include the Human Rights Committee (HRC), Kiribati has signed or ratified:

Status of major international human rights instruments

Kiribati	International treaties
	CESCR		CCPR			CERD	CED	CEDAW		CAT		CRC			MWC	CRPD
	CESCR	CESCR-OP	CCPR	CCPR-OP1	CCPR-OP2-DP			CEDAW	CEDAW-OP	CAT	CAT-OP	CRC	CRC-OP-AC	CRC-OP-SC		CRPD	CRPD-OP
Pertenence
Signed and ratified, signed, but not ratified, neither signed nor ratified, without information, it has agreed to sign and ratify the body concerned, but also recognizes the competence to receive and process individual communications from the competent bodies.

Territorial organization

Map of Kiribati.

Kiribati was divided into 6 districts, until its declaration of independence. Currently it is administratively divided into three sectors, according to the geographical grouping of the three archipelagos that form it, which are the Gilbert Islands, the Line Islands and the Phoenix Islands.

Geography

Kiribati is made up of 33 coral atolls and one island, Banaba (Ocean). The island groups are:

• Banaba: an island inhabited halfway between Nauru and the Gilbert Islands.
• Gilbert Islands: 16 atolls located about 1500 km north of the Fiyi Islands.
• Phoenix Islands: 8 atolls and coral islands located about 1800 km south-east of the Gilbert Islands.
• Islands of the Line or Spaniards: 8 atolls and a reef, about 3300 km east of the Gilbert Islands.

Three other atolls in the Equatorial Sporades belong to the United States.

• Banaba (or Ocean Island) is an island of coral origin that in its day was a rich source of phosphates, a resource that was exhausted almost entirely before the country's independence. The rest of the territory of Kiribati is composed of sand islets and rocky reefs or coral reefs that emerge just 2.5 meters above sea level. The land is low and calcareous, which makes agriculture very difficult in the country.
• Kiritimati, in the Equator Swords, is the largest atoll in the world.

The Butaritari atoll of the Kiribati Islands.

The Republic of Kiribati consists of 33 atolls scattered throughout the four hemispheres into which the planet is divided (north, south, east and west) in an ocean space equivalent in area to the continental United States. The islands lie approximately halfway between Hawaii and Australia in the Micronesia region of the Pacific Ocean, at the height of Earth's equator. The three main island groups or atolls are the Gilbert Islands, the Phoenix Islands, and the Line Islands. On January 1, 1995, a section of the International Date Line was moved to include the easternmost Kiribati islands on the western side, where the nation's other islands already were, so that the entire country would be The same day. Of the 33 small islands that make up the country, 20 are uninhabited.

The country's total area is 811 km², which is four times the size of the city of Washington, D.C., and its coastline is 1,143 km long. It shares no land borders with any country. The highest point is in Banaba and reaches 81 m s. no. m., while the lowest point is at sea level. The region's climate is predominantly tropical, that is, hot and humid with moderate winds, however there can be tropical cyclones at any time of the year, usually between March and November, as well as occasional tornadoes. The low elevation above sea level of many of the islands makes them very susceptible to tidal growth.

Coconut palms in the Abaiang atoll.

Its maritime boundaries are the Marshall Islands to the northwest, with the US possessions of Howland, Baker, Jarvis, Kingman, and Palmyra to the north, French Polynesia to the southeast, Cook Islands, Tokelau, and Tuvalu to the south, and Nauru to the west.

Kiribati includes Kiritimati (also known as Christmas Island, in the Line Islands), the largest coral atoll (in terms of area, not dimensions) in the world, and Banaba, one of the three large rocky islands with phosphates in the Pacific; the other such islands are Makatea in French Polynesia, and Nauru.

Most of the land on these islands does not exceed two meters above sea level. A 1989 UN report identified Kiribati as one of the countries that could disappear completely in the XXI century if not appropriate measures are taken to combat climate change.

Due to a population growth rate of more than 2% and overcrowding around the capital, Tarawa, a migration program was initiated in 1989 to move about 5,000 inhabitants to other outlying atolls, mainly on the Islands of the line. A Phoenix Islands resettlement program began in 1995.

Fearing that climate change will one day wipe out their entire island nation, Kiribati's rulers are considering an unlikely plan, to move the entire population to Fiji.

Kiribati is negotiating the purchase of a 20-square-kilometre area on the largest and most mountainous of the islands of the Fiji archipelago, Viti Levu, to accommodate 103,000 Kiribati in the event that dire forecasts come true of the experts, explained Filimoni Kau, its secretary of Lands and Mineral Resources.

Fauna and flora

Vegetation is sparse, as the soil is arid and saline. The most common species are coconut palms, pandanus and breadfruit trees. The thin layer of humus in the soil is only compatible with sparse vegetation. You can hardly find virgin land or harsh scrub anywhere.

The fauna in the country is even poorer than the flora, it includes several species of birds, reptiles, the marine fauna of the country is made up mostly of albula vulpes, horse mackerel, guaju, thunnus albacares, sailfish, groupers, sharks and milkfish. Bird species include the shearwater, petrel, tropical bird, frigatebirds, terns, little warbler, common rabijunco and Kiritimati warbler, the latter being the only one that inhabits the islands of Kiribati.

New Year

Kiritimati Island is located 232 kilometers north of the equator and is one of the 32 islands of this Pacific nation. It is the first populated area on the planet to spend the new year.

Economy

Kiribati has few natural resources. The commercially viable phosphate deposits of Banaba Island died out at the time of independence. Historically, the coconut represented one of the main sources of income for the country, which consequently came to depend on the world demand for this fruit. As interest waned, in 1993, the Asian Development Bank had to provide Kiribati with a $300,000 loan to make up for lost export losses.

International financial aid, mostly from the UK and Japan, is a large part of GDP, accounting for 25-50% of GDP in recent years. Kiribati's unit of currency is the Australian dollar, divided into 100 cents. In 2014, 1 Australian dollar is equal to 0.91 US dollars.

The weight of the economic sectors in the Kiribati economy in the year 2000 was as follows: agriculture 8.9%, industry 24.2% and the service sector 66.8%. It is estimated that the income from tourism is between 5 USD - 10 USD.

Demographics

Kiribatian children in South Tarawa.

Kiribati is an overpopulated country, with 103,092 inhabitants (2005) spread over just 811 square kilometres. of 127 inhabitants per square kilometer. 57.7% of the population is between 15 and 64 years of age.

Ethnicities

• Islanders: 97.7 %
• Mestizos: 1.5 %
• Other: 0.6 %
• Europeans: 0.2 %

Religion

The majority of the population professes the Catholic religion (56%). There is also a significant presence of Protestant religions such as the Evangelical (20%), in which Pentecostalism (10%) and Baptist churches (5%) stand out for their growth. Animism and different spiritualist beliefs reach 13% and, on the other hand, the following cults are also found in a more minority way:

• Seventh-day Adventist Church (2 %)
• The Church of Jesus Christ of the Last Day Saints (2 %)
• Jehovah’s Witnesses (1 %)

Health

Life expectancy at birth for Kiribati is 60 years (57 for men and 63 for women), the infant mortality rate is 54 deaths per 1,000 births. Tuberculosis is present in the country. The government spent $268 per capita in 2006. Between 1990 and 2007 there were 27 doctors for every 100,000 inhabitants. Since Cuban doctors arrived in the country, the infant mortality rate has dropped considerably.

Culture

Welcome Dance at Bonriki International Airport.

The culture of the Gilbert Islands is complex and diverse, but similarities can be found among the 33 atolls that make up the group.

Maneuvered

The maneaba or mwaneaba is the center of the village. Behind the war canoe, the maneaba is the "masterpiece" Gilbertese culture. Like the houses, it has a rectangular shape. The architect of the maneaba is, generally, an old man who learned the trade from him thanks to the experience and traditions in his family. This old man could also be considered a sorcerer, since the construction of the maneaba requires an invocation of the spirit called Anti. The maneaba adapts well to the climate of the island and to its function. The roof is supported by shoulder-high stone columns.

Sports

Bairiki National Stadium, Tarawa.

Kiribati has participated in the Commonwealth Games since 1998 and the Summer Olympics since 2004. It took three athletes to its first Olympics, two runners and a weightlifter. Kiribati won its first Commonwealth Games medal 2014 when weightlifter David Katoatau won gold in the 105 kg class.

Soccer is the most popular sport. The Kiribati Football Association is an associate member of the OFC, although it does not belong to FIFA. The Kiribati national football team has played ten matches, having lost all of them. They have always been in the Pacific Games from 1979 to 2011. The most important football stadium in Kiribati is the Bairiki National Stadium, which has a capacity of 2,500 spectators.

The Betio soccer field is home to several local sports teams.