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ecame “the information society” [4].
At civil society level, American and European NGOs in particular have since the
early nineties focused on specific human rights challenges within a digital
environment, especially in relation to the protection of privacy and freedom of
expression. This initial US / European lead has today turned into an increasingly
large number of civil society groups from all over the world, focusing on analysis
and policy campaigns for the defense of human rights standards in a digital
context. [5] One of the largest networks of these groups is the Global Internet
Liberty Campaign (GILC), an umbrella organization with currently more than 60
member organizations [6]. However, long before the development of the cyber
rights community with its more specific Internet focus, a number of social
movements had raised issues of information and media ownership and access to
communication. [7]
When the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) process took off in
2002, one of its important contributions was to create and facilitate a global space
where these very diverse civil society groups and movements met and were forced
to interact since they were included in a formal UN process as one voice; the voice
of “civil society” [8]. Both in terms of mutual ¬learning and networking on a global
scale, and in terms of ¬putting human rights on the information society agenda [9],
the WSIS process played a significant role.
Dignity, liberty, and the equity of all human beings
No single definition of the rather broad concept of “human rights in the information
society” exists, although many documents praise human rights as the foundation
for the information age.
The concept has at least two connotations. One relates to the ways in which
technology can be used as an enabler for human rights workers. Countless
examples exist showing how Internet has facilitated communication from
suppressed groups, have enabled human rights activists to report on violations, to
campaign across borders and to reach global information, and support to
strengthen their case [10].
The other use of the concept, which is the main focus here, relates to the
challenge of protecting and enforcing human rights standards at a point in time
when new communicative means are essentially changing the way we live, work,
and develop. Human rights are subject to dynamic interpretation, and part of their
essence is their recognition as standards in a given context at a given time. This
requires analysis as to how human rights are affected by current developments,
how the core of a given right is potentially threatened, how it can be enhanced,
and - crucially - to what extent the existing system of protection is adequate and
effective given the realities of new technological developments. The international
body of human rights is thus in perpetual evolution to dismiss new threats as well
as to encompass new opportunities for their extension. Historically this evolution
has always been the result of social struggles led by different groups in specific
historical junctures. The relatively recent codification of women’s rights and the
rights of indigenous peoples are a case in point.
Civil Society representatives attending the WSIS have stressed that to apply the
human rights framework to the information society implies taking dignity, liberty
and the equity of all human beings as the starting point of reference rather than