THE RIGHT OF ACCESS TO THE INTERNET AS FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT GIVEN THE DEVELOPMENT OF GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY

Purpose – This article examines the pressing problem of ensuring the right to Internet access as a basic human right that is fundamental for the formation and the development of the modern information society. The purpose of the study is to promote the idea of adhering to such right, clarifying conceptual approaches, to understand its content as reflected in the decisions of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights, as well as determining both the place and the role of this right in the European mechanism for the provision of human rights at the current stage of the information society. Methodology/Approach/Design – In order to reach a comprehensive understanding of the human right to Internet access and to reduce the level of digital inequality both in the European countries and globally, several authors have given their suggestions, which are considered appropriate for their implementation by international organizations, governments, telecommunication companies, and Internet service providers. Findings – By propelling this analysis, the authors advocate the need to recognize the right to Internet access as one of the inalienable human rights that are necessary for decent living and development in the information society. Special attention is given to the fact that the right to Internet access, due to its unique kind allows individuals to exercise other rights, namely the right to information, the right to freedom of opinion and the dissemination thereof, the right to freedom of assembly and association, the right to education, among others. This imposes positive obligations on states to ensure the human right to Internet access and to create a safe and favorable Internet environment for all

Access to Internet as a Human Right – Justification and Comparative Study

This paper advances a human rights perspective to the understanding of internet access by viewing it through a comparative lens with reference to countries in Europe, and the USA, India, and China. The question that is explored is: does internet access warrant recognition as a stand-alone human right, or is it sufficient that access is so bound up with one or more existing rights that formal recognition is unnecessary? Through this paper an effort has been made to analyse whether having a right to internet access as a human right is possible and to argue for the need to recognise such a right given the importance such a right holds, as can be seen especially during the ongoing pandemic when every aspect of life has been shifted to the online mode

The Right of Access to Information Through the Internet: the Comparison of “Hard law” and “Soft law”

The internet has become a necessary tool for the development of people’s lives. It is impossible to imagine a life without the internet since the vast majority of human beings use it in almost all of their daily activities. However, it is controlled by many government authorities around the world. This achievement of mankind, the world wide web, must not be arbitrarily deprived by the ruling authorities of any state. The question that this paper addresses is how the right of access to information through the internet is protected and restricted through international human rights instruments. Particularly, it identifies that “soft law” human rights instruments provide an access to information through the internet as an individual’s claim-right, whereas “hard law” provides it as a freedom. The method of the comparison of “hard law” and “soft law” instruments make it possible to understand that the human right is still better protected by a “soft” tool. The first part of this paper will compare the degree of protection provided by “hard law” and “soft law” instruments on the right of access to information through the internet. The second part of this paper will identify to what extent the “hard law” and “soft law” instruments justify the restrictions applied on the right of access to information through the internet

Is Internet access a human right? Linking information and communication technology (ICT) development with global human rights efforts

Peer-reviewed journal article; preprint.The wave of uprisings and protests in Arab nations since late 2010, in part attributed to the use of social media and Internet access, has demonstrated the immense potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) channeled for democracy. This paper argues that universal access to the global Internet is essential for the preservation of democracy and human rights and places the recent United Nations declaration that Internet access is a human right in the context of ongoing debates about the right to communicate, clarifying the distinction between universal service and the right to communicate. In particular, access to online content, required infrastructure, and ICTs is addressed, underscoring “the unique and transformative nature of the Internet not only to enable individuals to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression, but also a range of other human rights, and to promote the progress of society as a whole” (United Nations Human Rights Council, 2011, p.1). A basic right to communicate should also include access to developments such as the World Wide Web and emerging social media, as these are increasingly enabling active citizen participation (Winter & Wedemeyer, 2009). Envisioning participatory policy as grass-roots engagement, I address claims that modern ICTs can be employed to create public spaces for discourse and a reinvigoration of democratic processes (e.g., the Internet as a platform for the “public sphere” as imagined by Habermas, 1991) and emphasize the need to link ICT development with human rights efforts worldwide

Understanding the Internet as a Human Right

Around the world, fundamental human rights have undergone a dramatic conceptual shift as a result of the spread of the Internet. The right to freedom of expression, once largely limited to printing, has exploded in a digital world that provides users with an unprecedented megaphone to broadcast their views. The right to political participation and the right to free assembly have similarly been reborn in an age of instant communication, allowing activists to mobilise hundreds of thousands of followers with a single email, text or tweet. Although these are the most notable examples, the Internet has also had a transformative impact on several other recognised human rights, including the right to education, to healthcare and to work. The Internet’s role in the enabling and delivery of human rights has led some to claim that access to the Internet itself should be considered a human right, an idea that has deep implications for both international law and domestic legal frameworks. If, indeed, access to the Internet is a human right, it adds an additional dimension to regulatory issues, since overly restrictive laws that compromise access or damage the vitality or utility of the Internet become more than just bad policy. In some cases, they may constitute violations of international human rights standards. This Paper discusses the Internet’s recognition as a human right and the implications that spring from this recognition in domestic and international law

A New Right is the Wrong Tactic: Bring Legal Actions Against States for Internet Shutdowns Instead of Working Towards a Human Right to the Internet (Part 1)

A New Right is the Wrong Tactic: Bring Legal Actions Against States for Internet Shutdowns Instead of Working Towards a Human Right to the Internet (Part 1) is the first of a two-part series dealing with an increasingly prevalent threat to human rights: State-sanctioned Internet shutdowns. Part 1 details the current tactics and impacts of Internet shutdowns and which human rights are most likely to be violated by or during a shutdown. Part 2 will address the deficiencies of advocating for Internet access to be a recognized human right as a means of combatting shutdowns. Despite the popularity of this proposed solution, the harms of Internet shutdowns are better addressed through traditional legal avenues, such as bringing claims against the sanctioning state

International Law and the Right to Global Internet Access: Exploring Internet Access as a Human Right Through the Lens of Iran’s Women-Life-Freedom Movement

The speed of digital transformation creates major challenges for understanding and protecting digital technology-based human rights. While the internet may once have been a nice-to-have amenity, as societies become increasingly dependent on digital infrastructure, it has become a prerequisite to access fundamental human rights. Because the protection of internet access as a human right is lacking, individuals remain vulnerable to abuses, particularly by autocratic leaders. This Essay uses the still-unfolding Iranian Women-Life-Freedom Movement to examine the consequences of internet deprivation. The Iranian regime’s brutal treatment of its citizens sparked widespread protests which were largely coordinated through social media, highlighting the critical role of the internet in facilitating freedom of expression and assembly. In response to growing dissent, the Iranian regime intensified its internet censorship, including filtering and shutdowns, effectively silencing its citizens. By analyzing the situation in Iran, this Essay reveals how internet censorship undermines a wide range of human rights enshrined in the U.N.’s Charter, treaties, and declarations with a specific emphasis on nondiscrimination, right to development, and freedom of speech and information. This Essay also argues that, in light of the clear and widespread deprivation suffered by Iranian citizens as a consequence of the Iranian regime’s internet tampering, internet access has become so essential to enjoying a broad array of basic human rights that intentional deprivation of the same can be considered a Crime Against Humanity under the terms of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Finally, it lays the foundations of such a case, which could benefit human rights globally

Why there can be a human right to internet access

In this dissertation, I argue that it is possible to claim a standalone natural human right to internet access. The central argument is in Chapter II. I start my argument by analysing the issue of trans-historical universality of human rights. Human rights are traditionally defined as rights possessed by all human beings in all places at all times. It is claimed that if a human right to X was not possible in the past due to X having been unavailable at that past time, then — on pain of contradicting the universality of human rights — there cannot be a human right to X now, and such human right claim is invalid. If the internet as a historically contingent invention was not available in the past, then there cannot be a human right to internet access. I refute this challenge in chapter II, particularly in section 2.1 and 2.3. On this basis, I develop a framework based on the concept ‘harm’ which I call Theory Alpha (in section 2.5). I argue that Theory Alpha, with its Human Rights Generation Conditionals, provides a philosophical ground to justify human rights such as a right to internet access in a naturalistic approach. Chapter III, by reflecting on the current world, provides some reasons why a human right to internet access is possible according to Theory Alpha. Chapter IV addresses potential objections and issues regarding my Theory Alpha. Particularly, section 4.2 deals with how Theory Alpha would solve the issue concerning universality of human rights. I provide a more detailed preview of the dissertation in section 1.3. I conclude that Theory Alpha provides satisfactory answers to some important questions about human rights and supports that there can be a human right to internet access

"Internet Access as a New Human Right? State of the Art on the Threshold of 2020"

The aim of this study is to analyze the role that the Internet plays in the enjoyment of human rights and answer the question of whether we may be in the process of recog-nizing a new right, namely the right to Internet access. The conclusions are built upon a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Internet-related recommendations adopted by the UN treaty-based bodies in the period between 2007 and 2017. Moreover, the paper is supplemented by a brief overview of the relevant recommendations formulated under the mechanism of the Universal Periodic Review. Analysis of the content of rec-ommendations allowed them to be classified into two groups – the first one integrates recommendations that refer to the duty of non-interference, and the second concerns the duty to expand Internet infrastructure across the country. The article ends with a call for further investigation of the normative potential of Article 15(1)b of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as this hitherto forgotten provision might shed a new light on the proposed right to Internet access