17 June 2011 Volume: 21 Issue: 11 Australia's ... - Eureka Street

Volume 21 Issue: 1117 June 2011The Covenant does not discriminate between methods of transmission, and cites oral,written, artistic forms or ‘any other media of ... choice’. Declaring internet access a humanright can thus be seen as identifiying a medium that the Covenant authors could not foresee,but accommodated in language.On the other hand, La Rue’s report invites questions about what difference it makes on theground. Bahrain, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen are legally bound to uphold the Covenant,having variously ratified or acceded to it. Yet they contravened its provisions, even before theuprisings.The issue of state-owned or centralised control of internet infrastructure exacerbates theproblem. Freedom House, the renowned watchdog organisation, recently highlighted Jordan,Russia, Thailand, Venezuela and Zimbabwe as ‘countries at risk’ in this regard.So what can be gained from this report? By placing the internet within the sphere offreedom of opinion and speech, the UN is making overt the idea that internet users have thesame protections accorded to other media. It gives the Human Rights Committee, the bodythat monitors the ICCPR, an explicit language to hold governments to account.In framing the internet as a catalyst for social and individual transformation, La Rue alsorecognises that limited access to it has become a layer of disadvantage. Pre-existinginequalities are intensified, for instance, when there are 72 internet users per hundredinhabitants in developed countries, while there are only 10 per hundred in the African region.The UN calls on all governments to take concrete steps to bridge this digital divide.That internet access is a human right means that all are entitled to the unique benefits that itoffers, especially in terms of the ways it facilitates our fuller development as persons. We sawin the Arab Spring how this technology has become the platform for our human longings fordignity and peace through justice. How, then, can we deny it elsewhere or deprive anyone ofit?©2011 EurekaStreet.com.au 22