Human Rights in Information Age: Emerging Issues and Challenges Kshitij Kumar Singh* Abstract: Recent advances in information and communication technology has revolutionised the world as Internet, cell phone and other media has accelerated the flow of information. The increasing use of mobile devices to access internet content has led to the rapid growth of user generated content and social networking. Internet has enhanced people participation, giving true meaning to democratic values. It has become a means to catalyse human rights activists and promote respect for human rights. Nevertheless, technology is a neutral tool that can be used to promote human rights as well as to violate them. Likewise, information and communication technology, which is termed as technology of freedom can easily become technology of abuse. Governments and law enforcement agencies can ask companies to restrict access to websites, remove user-generated content, or provide personal information. These demands often involve significant risks to human rights, particularly to the right of freedom of expression and right to privacy. Against this backdrop, the present paper seeks to analyse the impact of information and communication technology on basic human rights and their influences on each other, paying heed to the role of the former in human rights governance. Keywords: Human Rights, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Internet, Democracy, Governance. 1. Introduction The rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has launched us into the information age1 that differs significantly from the industrial age. ICTs have brought radical transformations in society in almost all spheres: technological, economic, social and political. The increased interaction between ICTs and society poses new questions before the human rights law makers and activists in the information age. The debate is going on whether human rights should be redefined or relooked in the current information age. ICTs differ markedly from pre-existing technologies and they are endowed with both potentials and pitfalls. Whether they enable the promotion of human rights or pose significant risks to them is a matter of deep inquiry. In this background, the present paper aims at locating emerging issues and
*Assitant Professor Amity Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, NOIDA; Visiting Research Fellow (2009, 2010) Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario, Canada; E-mail:
[email protected];
[email protected] 1 Information Age may be defined as “a period beginning about 1975 and characterized by the gathering and almost instantaneous transmission of vast amount of information and by the rise of information-based industries” information age. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/information age (accessed: July 27, 2013); it can also be defined as “a time when large amounts of information are widely available to many people, largely through computer technology”, information age. Dictionary.com Collins English Dictionary-Complete and Unabridged 10th Edition Harper Collins Publishers. http:??dictionary.reference.com/browse/information. age (accessed: July 27, 2013).
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Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2606863
challenges before human rights in the information age. It discusses the effect of ICTs on human rights, covering its potentials and pitfalls. ICTs and Information Age ICTs are the integral component of the present information age, which revolutionized the society in a wholesome manner. ICTs differ from pre-existing technologies in terms of speed, efficiency and level of interaction. ICTs have changed the pattern of society in the field of business, education, culture and politics, reinventing new social behaviour. They have changed the relationship between the government and citizens, giving them an effective platform to communicate with the former in a direct manner. 2.1 Features of the Information Age The extensive flow of information and wide array of ICT infrastructures have become the prominent features of the information age.2 ICTs include the workings of all digital communication networks (principally the Internet), wireless networks, and radio broadcast networks.3 Information revolution is often compared with the industrial revolution for recognizing the idea that “communication networks are as integral to the process of development as was the birth and development of industry in the 19th century.”4 The combination of computing and telecommunication transmit and distribute innovation and development on rapid pace across the territorial borders. While industrial technologies took centuries to expand outside of Europe, ICTs have spread in all the continents in few decades.5 2.2 ICTs and Pre-existing Technologies ICTs such as Internet, cell phones with Internet gateway perform almost the same functions what pre-existing technologies such as printing press, radio, television, fax machine and telephone 2
Dunston Allison Hope, “Protecting Human Rights in the Digital Age”, BSR Report 2011, Commissioned by Global Network Initiative, available at http://globalnetworkinitiative.org/sites/default/files/files/BSR_ICT_Human_Rights_Report.pdf (Last visited August 10, 2013). 3 Audrey N. Selian, “ICTs in Support of Human Rights, Democracy and Good Governance”, ITU, Strategy and Policy Unit’s Background Paper (Aug 2002), available at http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/wsisthemes/humanrights/ICTs%20and%20HR.pdf (Last visited on Aug 10, 2013). 4 Ibid. 5 Giovanni Sartor, “Human Rights in the Information Society: Utopias, Dystopias and Human Values” in Claudio Corradetti (Ed), Philosophical Dimensions of Rights-Some Contemporary Views 294(Springer Netherlands; 2012).
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perform; however, the nature as well as the level of performance of both the groups differs significantly. Internet is performing almost the same function what Gutenberg’s printing press follow but with different intensity: [W]hile even the most advanced printing press produces a fixed number of books at a time, information technology systems can disseminate an electronic document to a virtually unlimited number of people simultaneously because the document in transit has essentially no physical form.6 Internet provides an excellent platform for interaction to various interactive groups7 as compared to the unidirectional radio and television predecessors.8 2.3 Potential Uses of ICTs ICTs can be potentially used at different policymaking and information dissemination levels in multiple forms such as database technologies, decision support technologies, networking technologies, and personal identification and tracking technologies.9 Networked electronic media facilitates multidirectional communication process, empowering people to exchange information and effectuates change by supporting decentralized, participatory development.10 ICTs can enhance the efficiency of public organizations, minimizing the administrative cost spent in the delivery of public services, enabling more information and ensuring transparency and accountability in it.11 They can also extend the reach of access to information, education and knowledge to a large section of people, making possible the packaging of information and education as digital goods that can be distributed at a minimal cost.12 They not only provide opportunity for individuals to communicate easily but enable them with new creative tools to produce information goods.13 They can be used to aggregate the individual efforts into social knowledge.14 They diminish distances, enabling individuals to interact with their peers regardless
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Jamie F. Metzl, “Information Technology and Human Rights” 18 Human Rights Quarterly 710 (1996). Id., at 712. 8 Selian, supra note 3. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid. 11 Sartor, supra note 5 at 294. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 7
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of distance barriers.15 They also help create a new public sphere, where individuals share and integrate their opinion to build social knowledge in myriad ways and disseminate this knowledge across the world, promoting a sense of participation and universalism.16 ICTs are also very useful for surveillance purposes as they not only lower the costs and accuracy of surveillance but create increased possibility of uploading information from actual plots, “with or without human supervision, both in real and virtual scenarios (consider for instance street cameras and the possibility of monitoring e-mail communication as well as any Internetmediated activity).”17 Moreover, such uploaded information can also be stored in digital form.18 2.4 Transformations brought by ICTs in Society ICTs have brought radical transformations in society namely economic, social, and technological transformations. They have reorganized economic activities in new manner; in the present information age distances become irrelevant to a large extent and economic activities have been speeded up by adaptable infrastructure and enhanced capacity to produce and communicate, heralding new forms of cooperation.19 Having its roots in knowledge, ICTs have provided an excellent environment for producing new knowledge “in all other domains of culture, science and technology, including first of all ICTs themselves.”20 ICTs have led to a paradigm shift in the traditional distribution of power in the international system. They have discouraged ‘command and control power hierarchies’ by facilitating the decentralization of information vital to the workings of national and international governance.21 They have dramatically changed the relationships between the government and the governed people: Vertical relationships between governments and society are being replaced by horizontal network relationships between public, semi-public and private agents, and ICTs (through their control, surveillance, communication and knowledge
15
Id., at 295. Ibid. 17 Id., at 296. 18 Ibid. 19 Id., at 293. 20 Ibid. 21 Selian, supra note 3. 16
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management potential) are revolutionizing the internal workings and external relations of public administrations.22 The sensitivity of the government to the potential use of ICT system has been a subject of intense debate because “historically, the deployment of telecommunication networks and informatics have been closely related to the workings of the military complex and the realization of political, ideological and military goals (as was the case in the Cold War).”23 Moreover, the traces of internet may be found in the US Defense Department in 1969, which facilitated “communication between scientists and engineers working on defense projects.”24
2. Human Rights and ICTs Interplay
Human rights are facing a defining moment in the present information age, where ICTs exert great influence on them. ICTs not only affect the basic human rights such as right to security, right to privacy, rights to freedom of speech and expression but they start a new debate of recognizing emerging rights such as right to access to internet and right to communication as human rights. They enable democracy and promote human rights governance in a remarkable way, however, at the same time they pose numerous risks to human rights. The use and abuse of ICTs have serious implications for human rights and basic human values.
3.1 Specific Human Rights Involved in the Interplay
Numerous human rights are involved in the interplay of human rights and ICTs, few important human rights are: right to security, right to privacy, right to reputation, right to freedom of opinion, expression and access to information and right to political participation. Right to security under Art.3 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights 1948 (hereinafter UDHR), which guarantees that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person” is very important in the information age. This provision needs to be understood as
Ignace Snellen and Wim Van de Donk, “Electronic Governance: Implications for Citizens, Politicians and Public Servants”, Erasmus University (Rotterdam) and Tilburg University (Tilburg) respectively cited in supra note 3. 23 Ibid. 24 Metzl, supra note 6 at 709. 22
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covering not only the body of a person, and not only his “embodied” mind (what one has stored inside one’s head), but also one’s “extended mind,” that is the computer memory where one has stored one’s thoughts and memories, and the tools one uses for developing one’s cognitive efforts, alone or with others.25 Art.12 of the UDHR contains a variety of rights relevant to ICTs: right to privacy, correspondence, honour and reputation.26 One important aspect of right to privacy in the information age is right to informational privacy, which means ‘one’s right to have control over information concerning himself.’27 Informational privacy is connected through a complex web to other human rights, where sometimes it stands in conflict with them and sometime it provides the base for their exercise.28 With the development of ICTs, the right to reputation has also gained utmost importance as ‘it can be interfered by publishing information on line.’29 Art.19 of the UDHR is particularly important in the information age as it ensures freedom of opinion, expression and access to information.30 Internet has expanded the ability of individuals and groups to express and transmit opinions in an extended way to reach a universal audience through “web pages, blogs, discussion groups, and other ways of delivering one’s communications and intellectual creations.”31 ICTs are particularly relevant to the right to receive and impart information contained in Art.19 of the UDHR as they can play a vital role in the distribution of information and production of digital contents.32 ICTs have a direct bearing on the right to political participation recognized in Art.21 of the UDHR.33 The Internet affects political participation in a significant way; it provides “new form of political communication between citizens, with their representatives and with the administration, new opportunities for civic engagement and participation.”34 However, the impact of internet on political participation should be examined with great caution because basic 25
Sartor, supra note 5 at 301. Art.12 enunciates: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attack upon his honour and reputation.” 27 Sartor, supra note 5at 301. 28 Id., at 302. 29 Ibid. 30 Art.19 of the UDHR states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” 31 Sartor, supra note 5 at 302 32 Ibid. 33 Art.21 of the UDHR states: “Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.” 34 Sartor, supra note 5 at 303. 26
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literacy is a natural pre-requisite for the effective use of these technologies. For example, in places “… where many avenues to political participation already exist, and where the opportunity cost of participation is quite low… the Internet does not provide a sufficient ‘added value’ to make it a better alternative
than more traditional methods of political
communication.”35
3.2 Right to access to internet as human right
In the human rights-ICT discourse, there has been a great debate whether right to access to internet should be recognized as basic human rights. In this debate a distinction is to be made between the negative and positive dimensions of this right. The negative dimension of this right is its protection through an obligation not to impede Internet access while its positive dimension is “its protection through the obligation to provide the means for access (to those who are unable to obtain them).”36 As regards to negative dimension, arguments can be made for
the existence of a perfect and enforceable obligation: forcefully excluding somebody from the Internet would amount to depriving him or her the most effective way to participate in culture, and express opinion (and exercise other fundamental liberties, such as the liberty of association, political liberty, etc.).37 This aspect of right to access to internet has been seen in China, some countries of North Africa and Middle East, where the use of internet for political criticism has faced state repression. Exclusion from the internet has also been imposed as a sanction against repeated copyright violation in French and British legislation.38 As regards to the positive aspect, this right is considered as imperfect obligation on the States. Failure to take it in consideration, giving it the importance it deserves, still involves an unacceptable human rights violation.39
Dana Ott, “Power to the People: The Role of Electronic Media in Promoting Democracy in Africa”, First Monday (Peer Reviews Journal on the Internet) 3, 4 (April, 1998): 2, Link: www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_4/ott/ cited in Selian, supra note 3. 36 Sartor, supra note 5 at 306. 37 Ibid. 38 Ibid. 39 Ibid. 35
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3.3 Right to communication as basic human right In the context of ICTs, the right to communication applies electronic correspondence substituting traditional exchange of message through paper.40 This right is so relevant in the present information age; however, more attention has been given on information than communication, which is an interaction process.41 Many suggest that this omission can be remedied by incorporating and recognizing right to communication as a basic human right. Protagonists consider right to communication as more fundamental than the information rights presently accorded by international law. The idea of communication is based in social process which is a basic need and foundation of all social organization. Therefore, right to communicate should constitute the “the core of any democratic system.”42 3.4 ICTs as enabler of Democracy and Human Rights There is an intimate relationship between ICTS, democracy, human rights and good governance and they all influence one another. A functional democracy ensures protection of human rights and good governance and ICTs can be useful tools for protecting human rights and strengthening democracy. ICTs are capable to mobilize mass segments of population and to empower all the players of civil society.43 Free press is one of the most effective means to help in protecting, promoting and encouraging human rights and freedom. “The ability of media to function unfettered by government fosters the creation of strong social networks, while engaging citizens in public affairs.”44 ICTs encourage freedom of press by making it more interactive through social networking, including individual’s voice. The extent to which a press functions freely determine the likelihood that human rights are being better protected through ICTs.45 Accurate and timely information is sine qua non for an effective responsive action “and the promotion of human rights, whether by organizations, individuals, governments, or international
40
Id., at 302. Cees J. Hamelink, “Human Rights for the Information Society”, in Girard, B. & O’ Siochru S. (Eds.) Communicating in the Information Society 121 (United Nation Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva; 2003). 42 Ibid. 43 Selian, supra note 3. 44 Ibid. 45 Ibid. 41
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institutions.”46 These groups play significant role in exerting political pressure for action.47 Cost efficient and speedy ICT tools such as fax machine, electronic mail (E-mail), and the Internet facilitate the transfer of information from persons having firsthand knowledge of human rights violations to the wider community across the globe and can play a significant role in the formulation of effective responses to violations of human rights.48 They enable citizens to raise their voices against repressive governments which constraint political debate and communications, through exercise of their right to know, comments and diffusion of criticisms.49 In the past news of many human atrocities such as the Nazi mass murders of Jews, Romanys (“Gypsies”), Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals and others remained a terrible secret about which Western governments and populations were insufficiently informed.50 States “might have responded otherwise if accurate, reliable, and believable information had been available earlier.”51
Electronic communication networks facilitate information sharing by reducing the opportunity costs of participation and minimizing the negative political implications of geographical urbanrural divides. With the help of ICTs, there is significant increase in number of people raising their human rights voices.52 E-mail communication can play a pivotal role in human rights governance as it can “impact the relations between and governance of human rights organizations as well.”53 Internet has the potential to mobilize functions of NGOs working across the borders, as an effective force to impact the government leaders carrying on traditional international organizations and to promote the human rights by providing a global platform for opposition movements challenging autocratic regimes and military dictatorships, despite government attempts to restrict access in certain countries.54 The evolving interaction among every component of civil society is strengthened by the ICTs and they are the important factors
46
Metzl, supra note 6 at 706. Id., at 707. 48 Ibid. 49 Sartor, supra note 5 at 303. 50 Metzl, supra note 6 at 707-708 51 Id., at 708. 52 Selian, supra note 3. 53 Metzl, supra note 6 at 721. 54 Selian, supra note 3. 47
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in the analysis of governance.55 The success of e-democracy so far is very limited; however, there is great hope for informed participation of citizens in social and political discourse.56 There has been a shift in attitudes towards human rights protection by Member states: Once considered to be the sole territory of sovereign states, the protection of human rights is now viewed as a universal concern, as evidenced by the recent conviction for genocide, rape, war crimes and crimes against humanity handed down in the International Criminal Tribunals...57 Since ICTs have the potential to universalize the knowledge and information; they can be useful tools in promoting the universal respect for human rights. International institutions, civil society and human rights groups are using ICTs to achieve UN-defined development goals. Since human rights groups form international linkages through the use of ICTs, their attention is shifted from national law to international human rights.58 The growth of transnational human rights network has been termed as the “third globalisation”, and has assisted to develop “a global civil society capable of working with governments, international institutions, and multinational corporations to promote internationally accepted standards of human rights and democracy.”59 The ICTs have helped forming a global civil society which according to Lipschutz, refers to “the transnationally organized political networks and interest groups that are largely autonomous from any one state’s control.”60 The wide array of NGOs, civil society groups, societies and political parties that work as the traditional counterpart to transnational networks have a significant role to suggest how new transnational networks of common interest are effectively used. They often reflect “the social interests of individuals and the protection of basic human rights, and are usually not motivated by profit or power.”61 NGOs have been the key player in international arena in ICT’s emergence as a power to challenge existing development and power paradigms.62 Internet has been widely 55
Ibid. Sartor, supra note 5 at 303. 57 “Road Map Towards the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration”, A/56/326, Report of the Secretary-General, UN General Assembly, 56th session (September 6, 2001), 37 cited in Selian, supra note 3. 58 Ibid. 59 Ibid. 60 Cynthia, J. Alexander and Leslie A. Pal, Digital Democracy – Policy and Politics in the Wired World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 32 cited in Selian, supra note 3. 61 Selian, supra note 3. 62 Ibid. 56
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used by human rights organizations to post reports of human rights conditions in various countries, highlighting the alleged human rights violations e.g. Amnesty has different interlinked home pages, connecting a vast numbers of Amnesty reports. Human Rights Watch also uses the internet in the same way.63 In addition to human rights organizations, academic institutions are taking lead in posting human rights information on the internet.64 ICTs are of great help for human rights defenders as they open new vistas for “activism and publicity for defenders in their work, providing tools through which new methods for traditional activism can be developed but also leading to the growth of entirely new areas of social activity.”65 Social networking and information-sharing sites have enabled activists “to communicate, find and share information, publicize their work and issues, and to generate campaigns in ways which were unimaginable only a few years ago.”66 ICT provides human rights defenders tools “to communicate between themselves and with the international community in a way that was not possible through the use of phone, fax or postal services.”67 Cost-efficient “communication services such as Skype and equipment such as webcams, portable internet devices and even wi fi have allowed frequent and fast sharing of information, conference calling and consultative work.”68
3.5 ICT as risk to HR Along with enormous potential benefits ICTs carry significant risks to human rights. The power of storing information using ICTs enables those in power to detect any unwanted behaviour and attitude.69 They can use the advanced technology for the identification of content to track and eliminate unwanted materials and provide doctored information that is best suited to their own interest.70 Here, the important question is: who controls the ICTs particularly the internet? There
63
Metzl, supra note 6 at 722. Id., at 724. 65 “Human Rights Defenders and New Technologies: the Challenging Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Human Rights Protection”, available at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/hrlc/documents/studentconference2010/taraolearyhumanrightsdefendersandnewtechno logies.pdf (Last visited on Aug 11, 2013). 66 Ibid. 67 Ibid. 68 Ibid. 69 Sartor, supra note 5 at 296. 70 Id., at 297. 64
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are various actors who exert their control to ICTs in one or another form with varying degrees such as governments, law enforcement agencies, multinational companies and other entities.71 Governments vary in their approaches to protect and promote human rights, while some governments are more transparent than others regarding their national security and law enforcement priorities and responsibilities they impose on private sectors; there are others who undertake national security and law enforcement activities that are consistent with their local domestic law. There are few others, ‘who pursue national security and law enforcement activities that are in conflict with their own domestic law.’72 These varied approaches of protecting human rights online, have been concentrated at the content level or personal level.73 In many countries internet companies are forcefully asked by governments to restrict access to websites, remove user generated content or provide personal information to law enforcement agencies.74 In Iran, the discussion regarding the use of ICT infrastructure for surveillance during elections raised great concern regarding the impact of telecommunication network. Likewise, in Egypt, the closure of entire mobile communications shows the sheer vulnerability of telecommunications service providers on governmental demands.75 Authoritarian governments have been using censorship to suppress the voices against them for a long time and in the present information age, they use censorship to regulate electronic and internet speech too. Even ““long‐standing’ democracies like the UK, the US or France, are promoting , since 9/11, express censorship in the name of security and fight against terrorism, to silence dissent, for example, to the war against Iraq or policies in Afghanistan.”76 The degree of censorship varies from country to country given their relative, political and cultural set up.77 This situation poses great risk to freedom of speech and expression in the digital age.
ICTs are prone to be abused by law enforcement agencies and multinational companies. Cell phones and mobile devices are designed in such a way that they can be more easily accessed by 71
Selian, supra note 3. Hope, supra note 2. 73 Ibid. 74 Ibid. 75 Ibid. 76 Audrey Guinchard, “Human Rights in Cyberspace” (September 15, 2010). Society of Legal Scholars Conference (SLS) 2010, Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1694483 (Last visited on August 12, 2013). 77 Ibid. 72
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law-enforcement agencies.78 With the advancement of ICTs, cell phones are configured with smarter features and the gateway to the internet. The software and hardware functionality designed to enable location-based services poses human rights risks in cases in which law enforcement agencies inappropriately seek the location of a user.79 Internet companies have emerged as the new growing power, posing some important questions: how human rights can be articulated in this new geography of power? Whether citizens are educated enough about the pros and cons of ICTs and well placed to understand the possible risks relating to privacy and anonymity from ICT companies?80 Here, data holder companies are under obligation to respect better their users’ privacy by establishing/developing technologies that allow the users a control on their privacy.81 Anonymity is crucial to fairly criticize against the powerful entities, however, it has been under attack due to rapid growth of ICTs as “[g]eolocalisation of devices, again often put per default, rather than an opt‐in option for the user, allows anyone to know anything. Mobiles/smart phones, computers…”82 Profiling by private companies also raises great concern “who under or not the disguise of free stuff available sell one’s profile.”83
There is, therefore, always a risk that technology being a neutral tool can be abused by oppressors (governments, ICT companies and other entities having power to control ICTs) to control the personal information, invading individual’s right to privacy.84 In such a little transparent environment, free flow of information through electronic medium is necessary for human rights group or movement. In such a situation, there is an imminent danger that government policy and dictates of poverty will “deny access to information technology to opposing or underprivileged groups.”85 Despite the fear of misuse or abuse of technology by oppressors, ICTs have been instrumental in establishing networks between all kinds of inter-communal and inter-ethnic groups, who have with their co-ordinated efforts succeeded in producing a real impact on different government
78
Hope, supra note 2. Ibid. 80 Guinchard, supra note 76. 81 Ibid. 82 Ibid. 83 Ibid. 84 Metzl, supra note 6at 714. 85 Ibid. 79
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initiatives and projects. Positive example of this impact can be seen in India, Brazil and Canada.86 However, much depends upon the governments and technology cannot do more on its own. Although electronic media highlights and disseminate incidents, however, governments seldom take action. For example in 1994 mass killing in Rwanda, “information on the ongoing killings was widely available but states did not perceive an interest sufficiently pressing to demand a meaningful response.”87 Likewise, ICTs “can facilitate the provision and transfer of information, but can do less to determine what impact this information will have.”88 Therefore, it is not the technology alone that can promote the realization of human rights but the government.89 Human rights can also influence the practices of ICTs in the information age, providing a normative structure for the governance of the information society.90 Human rights are important for guiding the ICT controllers and regulators to function in a meaningful and humanistic way. 3. Challenges Ahead The success of ICTs depends upon their access to the large section of people. However, there, remains a digital divide91 among developed and developing countries at the forefront of development agendas that necessitates deep inquiry and analysis as to “how these technologies are utilized and applied to bring about expected revolutionary societal and economic changes and improvements.”92 This is the big challenge for ICT developers, controllers and users. Great disparities exist among developed and developing countries regarding the connectivity of internet, it has a very different meaning for well developed, relatively wealthy international human rights organisations based in the United States, Europe, and those “which are the small, local, often disadvantaged and under-funded grassroots human rights organisations struggling to address particular local issues.”93 Small groups in the country-sides of developing counties, are
86
Selian, supra note 3. Metzl, supra note 6 at 708. 88 Ibid. 89 Ibid. 90 Selian, supra note 3. 91 (“The digital divide here refers to the information, infrastructure and knowledge gap that exists between the industrialized countries and developing countries. It is the disconnect between the “haves” and “have-nots” in terms of access to information and knowledge resources that contribute to the social and economic development of the world over.”) Ibid. 92 Ibid. 93 Metzl, supra note 6 at 718. 87
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“the least likely groups to be linked to global computer networks, and may not have access to computers, telephones, or even electricity.”94
With the great abundance of information flowing all around through internet and other ICTs, there remains “a danger that human rights workers and other concerned observers will be overwhelmed by information overload.”95 George Gunder of PeaceNet has asserted, “the Internet is like the Library of Congress with no card catalogue.”96Lack of proper filters makes it difficult to translate the vast amounts of information into a useable basis of knowledge.97 This situation reflects “how one of the main strengths of the Internet can also become one of its weaknesses.”98 Unlike traditional filters used by electronic media, Internet allows its users to bypass any filter whatsoever.99 Another great challenge concerned with the verification of information as information is coming from disparate sources and adequate verification might require longer period of time.100 Internet is an insecure medium, where e-mails are prone to be stopped, read and altered. Though verification is a costly and time taking process, it is vital to tackle the tampering of information flowing through internet.101 By far the most effective means of addressing these dangers of tampering and surveillance is through the use of encryption technology, which a small number of human rights groups are beginning to do.102
4. Conclusion In the current information age, ICTs have brought remarkable transformations in society, affecting all walks of life; human rights have not remained untouched by these transformations. They pose entirely new challenges before human rights actors and demand a fresh approach to relook and redefine human rights in tune with the current technological developments. They not only affect the existing human rights recognised in various national and international legal
94
Id., at 719. Id., at 725-26. 96 Id., at 726. 97 Ibid. 98 Ibid. 99 Ibid. 100 Id., at 727. 101 Id., at 727-28 102 (Encryption technology codes the computer information in such a way that it cannot be read by unauthorized person.) Id., at 729. 95
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instruments but started a fresh debate for recognising new human rights such as right to access to internet and right to communication and expanding the scope of the recognised rights such as right to privacy to include informational privacy. As regards to the effects of ICTs on human rights, they exert both positive as well as negative effects. ICTs provide new tools to various human rights actors such as NGOs, IGOs and civil society groups to raise voice against state repression and respond to human rights violations on a global platform; they encourage people participation in the governance of human rights. However, they pose significant risks to basic human rights such as right to privacy and freedom of speech and expression. Here, it is worth noting that it is not the technology which is responsible for these risks but the controllers, regulators and users of the technology. As regards to the restrictions on rights, the balance should always be struck in favour of basic human rights, ensuring that reasonable restrictions must be reasonable. It is true that internet is not a platform where one can say anything one wants; however, state should play a more responsible role while imposing sanctions, giving space for self-restriction. The basic human rights should not be suppressed in the name of national security. It is up to the human rights activists, civil society groups and NGOs to sensitise the government and other controllers of the technology about human rights concerns. Although ICTs promise overwhelming benefits, but there must be a reality check to examine the real effects. The pre-requisite for the success of ICTs are basic infrastructures such as computer literacy and access to technology, the potential of ICTs must be seen in the light of poverty, illiteracy and digital divide between rich and poor and between developed and developing nations. ICTs are not developed with an object to promote human rights but to promote business and whether ICTs can be a tool for human progress depends upon how human rights actors perform their roles. Accessibility of ICTs, connectivity of the Internet and verification of information are challenges, which must be addressed in a technologically compatible manner. There is a need to understand the human rights risks at every stage of ICTs activities. Human rights actors should be trained in such a way that they can easily identify the risks involved with ICTs practices and respond accordingly. ♦♦♦ ♦♦♦ ♦♦♦
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