Kiribati is rated ‘open’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. Kiribati is a multiparty democracy that holds regular elections. There are no significant restrictions on media. Freedom of assembly is constitutionally protected and generally upheld in practice and there is freedom for NGOs, particularly those engaged in human rights and governance-related work. However, there have been concerns about judicial independence and that the government has yet to decriminalise defamation or establish a national human rights institution.
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A Kiribati judge, who was removed from his post, left the country in May 2024 after members of parliament voted in April 2024 to accept the decision of a tribunal set up by the government that recommended his dismissal for ‘misbehaviour’.
As previously documented, in May 2022, the President of Kiribati suspended Judge David Lambourne from the High Court and appointed a tribunal to investigate unspecified allegations of misconduct against the senior judge. In June 2022, when Lambourne’s appeal against his suspension came up in court, the government suspended the Chief Justice William Hastings who was to hear the case.
In August 2022, officials attempted to deport Australian-born Lambourne – who has lived in Kiribati with his family for over 20 years - for visa violations, without success. In September 2022, the government suspended the country’s three remaining High Court judges, an apparent retribution for their rejecting the government's bid to deport Judge Lambourne.
Judge Lambourne is married to Tessie Lambourne, the leader of the opposition party. He is believed to have been targeted because the government was trying to force his wife out of politics.
A tribunal established by the government to hear allegations was disbanded in early November 2023. A second tribunal established on 7th March 2024 ruled that Lambourne should be removed, largely because some of his written judgments were not “promptly delivered”.
On 26th April 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Margaret Satterthwaite said: “Judge Lambourne was removed after proceedings that violated international standards. He was not allowed to have a fair hearing, after almost four years of proceedings that have undermined the independence of the judiciary in Kiribati.”
The UN expert added that the second tribunal was “marred by procedural irregularities and delays.”
Commonwealth legal organisations, in a statement on 26th April 2024, said: “the lack of transparency in the process of the second tribunal, the fact that Justice Lambourne was unable to cross-examine the witnesses who gave evidence to the tribunal and was not permitted to attend any of the hearings except to give his own evidence, demonstrate that due process was not followed.”
An opposition MP, the country's first president, Sir Ieremia Tabai, called the removal of Lambourne “a farce, and one aimed by the government at the family of the leader of the opposition.”