Teburoro Tito

Who is Teburoro Tito?

Teburoro Tito was born on 25 August 1953 in the village of Tanaeang on Tabiteuea North. In 1971 he won a government scholarship to the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, where he served as president of the students' association and graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science and a Certificate in Education. He entered politics with the Christian Democratic Party (Maneaban Te Mauri), rising to become opposition leader and later deputy leader through the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1994 he was elected the third President of Kiribati, and he was re-elected in February 2003. During his presidency Tito wrote the formal letter, dated 14 April 1999, requesting Kiribati's admission to the United Nations, and the country became a UN member state that same year. Throughout his time in office and afterward, Tito was an outspoken advocate at United Nations forums for greater action from large industrialized nations on global warming, arguing that small island states like Kiribati bear the consequences of emissions they did not cause. After leaving the presidency in 2003 he continued in public service, later representing Kiribati as its Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the United Nations.

Sources: Teburoro Tito, Wikipedia (biography, presidency, UN admission) · PIR Center, interview with Ambassador Teburoro Tito (2022)