Human Rights in the Global Information Society (Information Revolution and Global Politics)

338 Pages·2006·1.09 MB·English

by  Rikke Frank Jorgensen

49842Jorgensen 5/15/06 4:35 AM Page 1
public policy/computers
HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY H
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edited by Rikke Frank Jørgensen
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International organizations, governments, acade- Rikke Frank Jørgensen is Senior Adviser at the R HUMAN
mia, industry, and the media have all begun to Danish Institute for Human Rights and adviser to the IG
grapple with the information society as a global Danish Delegation to the World Summit on the H
T RIGHTS
policy issue. The first United Nations World Summit Information Society. She is on the boards of Digital S
on the Information Society (WSIS), held in Rights (DK) and European Digital Rights (EDRI). I
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December 2003, recognized the connections Information Revolution and Global Politics series T in the
between information technology and human rights H
with a Declaration of Principles—in effect, the “Read this book. Human rights laws, common to E GLOBAL
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first“constitution” for cyberspace—that called for 150 countries and stretching back more than 50 L
tchoen fdoervme ltoop rmeceongt noifz ethde s itnafnodrmaradtsio onf hsoucmieatny rtiog hts. ybeuailrds ,t hpero ivnifdoer mthaet ieoxni sstoincige ftoy.u Tnhdea atiuotnh oonrs w, shpiceha kto- OBA I NFORMATION
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Critical issues in the policy debates around WSIS ing collectively in the voices of many disciplines,
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have been the so-called digital divide, which limn the roadmap, including the monuments to NF SOCIETY
reflects a knowledge divide, a social divide, and human hope and ingenuity, the resting places, the O
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an economic divide; and the need for a nondiscrim- points of interest, and the hazards on the way to
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inatory information society to provide universal our common future.” A
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access to information technology in local languages —Deborah Hurley, author of Pole Star: Human
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throughout the developing world. Other crucial Rights in the Information Society
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issues include the regulatory frameworks for infor-
“The advancement of a global information society S
mation access and ownership and such basic O
offers an important opportunity for promoting C
freedoms as the right to privacy. The contributors
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equal and sustainable development, especially in E
to this timely volume examine the links between T
less developed countries. This book serves as Y
information technology and human rights from a
an important contribution to this end, addressing
range of disciplinary perspectives. Scholars, human
positive and negative implications that occur in
rights activists, and practitioners discuss such
the interface between human rights law, new tech-
topics as freedom of expression, access to informa-
nology, and societal development.”
tion, privacy, discrimination, gender equality, J
—Ambeyi Ligabo, UNSpecial Rapporteur on Ø
intellectual property, political participation, and R
Freedom of Opinion and Expression
freedom of assembly in the context of the revolution G
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in information and communication technology, “A remarkable, sober, and sobering book, quite N
exploring the ways in which the information socie- different from the triumphalist celebrations of S
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ty can either advance human rights around the the information society as a universal panacea. N
,
world or threaten them. An afterword reports on the Jørgensenconvincingly demonstrates the tremen-
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November 2005 WSIS, held in Tunis, and its reaf- dous human rights issues that are at stake.” D
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firmation of the fundamental role of human rights —Peter Leuprecht, Faculty of Political Science and T
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in the global information society. Law, University of Quebec at Montreal R
edited by
The MITPress 978-0-262-60067-5 | 0-262-60067-6
Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology
rikke frank jørgensen
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
http://mitpress.mit.edu
Human Rights in the Global Information Society
The Information Revolution and Global Politics
William J. Drake and Ernest J. Wilson III, editors
The Information Revolution and Developing Countries
Ernest Wilson, 2004
Human Rights in the Global Information Society
edited by Rikke Frank Jørgensen, 2006
Human Rights in the Global Information Society
edited by Rikke Frank Jørgensen
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any elec-
tronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales
promotional use. For information, please email [email protected] or
write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge,
MA 02142.
This book was set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong
Kong and was printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Human rights in the global information society / [edited by] Rikke Frank Jørgensen.
p. cm.—(The information revolution & global politics)
Papers originally presented at the World Summit on the Information Society,
November 2005. Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-262-10115-7—ISBN 978-0-262-10115-8 (alk. paper)
ISBN 0-262-60067-6—ISBN 978-0-262-60067-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Human rights—Congresses. 2. Information society—Congresses. I. Jørgensen,
Rikke Frank. II. World Summit on the Information Society (2005 : Tunis, Tunisia)
III. Series.
JC571.H76954 2006
323—dc22
2005058046
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Foreword by Adama Samassékou vii
Introduction
William J. Drake and Rikke Frank Jørgensen 1
I Freedom of Expression, Access to Information, and Privacy
Protection 51
1 The Right to Express Oneself and to Seek Information 53
Rikke Frank Jørgensen
2 The Right to Information in the Age of Information 73
David Banisar
3 Access to Information and Knowledge 91
Kay Raseroka
4 Intellectual Property Rights and the Information Commons 107
Robin Gross
5 Privacy as Freedom 121
Gus Hosein
II Freedom of Association, Participation, and Procedural
Protections 149
6 The Right of Assembly and Freedom of Association in the
Information Age 151
Charley Lewis
vi Contents
7 The Right to Political Participation and the Information
Society 185
Hans Klein
8 The “Guarantee Rights” for Realizing the Rule of Law 197
Meryem Marzouki
III Equal Treatment and Development 219
9 A Nondiscriminatory Information Society 221
Mandana Zarrehparvar
10 Women’s Human Rights in the Information Society 235
Heike Jensen
11 Ensuring Minority Rights in a Pluralistic and “Liquid” Information
Society 263
Birgitte Kofod Olsen
12 The Right to Development in the Information Society 281
Ran Greenstein and Anriette Esterhuysen
About the Authors 303
Afterword: The Tunis Commitment 309
Index 311
Foreword
Adama Samassékou
The Promise of Information and Communication Societies
The year is 2006. The first World Summit on the Information Society was
held in December 2003, with a follow-up in November 2005. Governments
of the world have adopted the first political Constitution of Cyberspace,
thereby formally acknowledging the potential benefits stemming from the
use of information and communication technologies, and have agreed to
help narrow the digital gap between the developed and the developing
countries: a gap that is unacceptable for all humanity and that represents
both a cause and a consequence of the unequal distribution of wealth in
the world and within countries.
Formally recognized by all is the premise that the development of the
information society must be based on the framework of human rights, and
should respect and uphold the standards laid down in the United Nations
Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human rights are
universal, indivisible, interrelated, and interdependent, as reaffirmed at the
1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights. Hence, a crucial premise
for realizing the vision of the information society is a commitment to effec-
tively implement and enforce all human rights: civil and political as well
as economic, social, and cultural.
Furthermore, there is a general recognition that information and com-
munication technologies should be used to advance and implement the
U.N. Millennium Development Goals, the indicators to end human
poverty by 2015.
The human rights standards require governments to ensure that the
information society does not result in discrimination or in deprivation of
existing rights. On the contrary, information and communication
viii Adama Samassékou
technologies should be used to advance the effective implementation of
human rights at the local level. The principle of nondiscrimination man-
dates universal access to information and communication as an overall
goal. All individuals, communities, and countries should be empowered to
take part in the information society, using their own languages to create,
disseminate, and share information and knowledge. Ensuring information
and education for all is essential if information and communication tech-
nologies are to play a vital role in helping to reach the U.N. millennium
goal of eradicating poverty, hunger, and diseases, particularly in the devel-
oping world, where nearly half of the population is living below the
poverty line. But it is also important in the developed world, where the
regulatory framework for information access, ownership, and privacy is
being developed and debated.
The information society has communication as its nerve center. It pro-
vides new and easy access to information and to communication, to find
like-minded persons, and to build bridges that cross traditional geograph-
ical and cultural borders. Information can be power; communication is
empowering. As societies transform into information societies, the ability
to communicate and learn becomes the most important societal skill.
Seizing this opportunity requires openness and the ability to embrace and
reflect on a number of different perspectives and realities. If we are willing
to meet this challenge, the information society can provide an enormous
learning opportunity for all of us.
And this is why I wish to stress that we are indeed entering a new global
society: that of information, human communication, and shared
knowledge.
The Challenge for Human Rights
At the core of human rights are the dignity, integrity, and vulnerability of
the individual. Human rights are about people on the ground and their
rights. The right to a decent standard of living and to a life lived in
freedom, without hunger, violence, and suffering. The right to participate
in society, to voice opinions, and to be free from arbitrary intrusions or
restrictions by the state. As expressed by Eleanor Roosevelt, who chaired
the U.N. Human Rights Commission in its first years:
Foreword ix
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—
so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they
are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or
college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places
where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal
dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have
little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close
to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. (Eleanor Roosevelt
at the presentation of “In Your Hands: A Guide for Community Action for the Tenth
Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” March 27, 1958, United
Nations, New York)
Access to information is essential for self-determination, for social and
political participation, and for development. However, at present only one
third of the world population has access to information and communica-
tion technologies; the great majority is excluded from them. The poor
remain poor and the rich remain rich. The great challenge facing the world
is how to expand the reach of information to all human beings, no matter
their social, economic, cultural, and geographical position. A region such
as Africa has wealth and cultural diversity, but also represents a tremen-
dous challenge in empowering illiterate people and ensuring that ordinary
citizens, who speak only local languages, are included in the information
society.
Human rights, democracy, and development are intertwined. Unless
human rights are respected, international peace and security and the pro-
motion of economic and social development cannot be achieved. Often
the political debate leaves one with the impression that conflicts and terror
require us to diminish human rights and freedoms. This rhetoric has put
human rights on the defensive. It is important to insist that effective imple-
mentation of human rights is actually the best way to prevent conflict and
terror, the best way to end suffering and inequality. All actions to secure
international peace and security must be firmly based on the human rights
framework, and respect and uphold the standards—not least in times of
fear and heated public emotions.
When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948,
it was one of the first major achievements of the United Nations. After
more than fifty years it remains an instrument that has a significant effect
on people’s lives all over the world. Its adoption was the first time in