UN Council declares Internet freedom a human right | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent

UN Council declares Internet freedom a human right | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education | Asian Correspondent
Lisa Gardner, Jul 09, 2012

On Thursday, July 5, the UN Human Rights Council passed a landmark resolution that recognizes the right to freedom of expression online, and calls upon states to promote Internet access as fundamental to the exercise of civic rights.

“The same rights that people have offline must also be protected online,” noted the Council, the UN’s main human rights body, as civic and political rights are “applicable regardless of frontiers.” Frontiers that were once conceived as borders between countries are now understood as barriers to access – namely, to that global sphere of knowledge commonly known as the Internet.

DEBATE & DISSENT: The Internet, a ‘Human Right’?

As the Council met in Geneva, Swedish Ambassador Jan Knutsson sought to persuade states to back the bill, reiterating the Internet’s capacity for positive social and cultural development.

“It is clear that the Internet and information technologies have been key in changing people’s lives – making them less vulnerable, and reducing poverty,” he argued – the implications of which are egalitarian, and democratic. “The openness of the Internet levels the playing field between regions and continents.”

And yet, how might more censorious states support any such proposal which gives greater impetus to free expression online? China, Russia, and Cuba in particular raised concerns that unfettered rights online would do little to curb cyber crime and other “negative” developments.

Chinese Ambassador Xia Jingge said that he’d hoped “the sponsors (would) consider the differences in views… (regarding) freedom of speech, and control of the Internet, amongst the different countries”, since:

(China) believes that the free flow of information on the Internet, and the safe flow of information on the Internet, are mutually dependent. As the Internet develops rapidly, online gambling, pornography, fraud and hacking are increasing its threat to the legal rights of the society and the public, particularly the unhealthy information have a huge negative impact on the growth of minors.

The governments of the world are duty bound to fight against such crime, to guarantee the safe flow of information on the Internet, to guide the public to use the public – to run the Internet – legally. Otherwise, unhealthy and negative information flow will obstruct the development of the Internet.

Yet China, along with more than 80 countries, including 30 members of the council, would sign on to co-sponsor the non-binding resolution.

“It is an important step in determining how to incorporate new electronic frontiers into the established body of international human rights agreements,” noted rights institute Freedom House. “It also firmly establishes the global acceptance of the principle of free expression on the Internet, even if its application has yet to be fully realized.”