Information for Human Rights

Image created by Charles Trevelyan is a courtesy of Plus magazine©.

Introduction Eumap.org – in collaboration with Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) – is pleased to publish a feature on the most topical and important issues regarding information and human rights. This feature consists of two parts. The first part focuses on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The second part is dedicated to case-studies on specific uses of information to defend and promote human rights and public interest issues around the globe.

Part I ''The WSIS and beyond'' deals with human rights and the information society. Various UN and civil society agencies met in Geneva in 2003 at the first World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) with an aim to work towards a ''people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilise and share information and knowledge''. Although human rights were specifically on the agenda, and the participants solemnly reaffirmed the universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelation of human rights, many activists felt that this important topic received only marginal attention. The three different essays featured here scrutinise both achievements and shortcomings of the first WSIS and the Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action adopted at the Summit.

• The role and responsibility of the EU in an development of the inclusive and just information society is highlighted in the first article of the selection, by a British scholar from the University of Essex. The analysis shows that a so-called ''digital divide'' can have a negative impact on human rights in the less developed countries; hopes and expectations are placed on the upcoming second WSIS in Tunis in January 2005.
• The second article, by members of the Danish National Institute for Human Rights, sheds light on a very complex impact that the information society can have on human rights – from potential conflicts between data collection and privacy, to dangers of ever-expanding state surveillance in the name of security, to possible infringements on free speech; it also highlights a recent good practice: a multinational Forum to enable human rights defenders world-wide.
• The third essay of the first part, by an Austrian academic, is dedicated to the intricate nature of the relationship between various rights, such as the right to information and the right to protection of intellectual property. The article analyses how the information society can resolve potential conflicts.

Part II ''Case Studies from Around the Globe'' provides snapshots of how information serves to defend and promote human rights and public interest issues in different countries. Electronic resources, in particular the Internet, have become perhaps the most important resource for information and documentation about human rights. Even in less developed countries on the other side of the ''digital divide'' – or perhaps because of the digital divide – the shared electronic resources have come to compensate the informational gaps. Many organisations and institutions promoting human rights use the power of new media, particularly the Internet, to educate people about civil and human rights issues, the rights of vulnerable groups, and to generate debate on a variety of public interest issues.

• A highly successful online anti-torture campaign by Amnesty International is analysed in depth in the article by a British scholar from the Leeds Metropolitan University. The two-year AI campaign – although subsequently discontinued – has been a powerful tool to address and in many instances stop torture. However, while the Internet has its undeniable benefits, it also has its limitations, and human rights advocates are urged to consider how to tame the power of Internet for the world-wide advocacy, without sacrificing quality and credibility.
• An experience of Nepal may be of use to anyone who is engaged in human rights advocacy and aims to quickly and efficiently reach out to communities often deprived of traditional means of information, either due to the absence of infrastructure, or due to suppression of information by states.
• As if in response: an expert web developer shares concerns about overreliance on the Internet -- over the traditional means of gathering and distrubuting information -- and risks that could pose.
• The discussion of state censorship and suppression of information in China, a central theme of the article by an activist from the Garden Networks, complements the discussion of various other issues raised in the feature. A high-tech method of overcoming suppression of information may be a (controversial) solution, sending a message to states that sooner or later information becomes public knowledge, in spite of censorship and suppression.
• The Internet is only as good as people using it. Both the tremendous potential and inevitable limitations of using the Internet for educating the public and reaching out to policy makers by human rights defenders in Belarus are studied by the creators of a new portal there. In a context of restricted freedom, the Internet could be a means to promote human rights and influence decision-makers – but only when human rights defenders are themselves sufficiently aware of the issues and tools at hand.
• Finally, activists engaged in anticorruption and transparency issues, including competition policy and consumer protection, might find very useful the piece by the president of the US-based Antitrust Institute, a virtual public interest network, which was started from scratch, but which thanks to enthusiasm and commitment of its members has grown to be taken seriously by the government and decision-makers in the US.

• Information for Human Rights. Part I: The WSIS and beyond
• • The Digital Divide and Human Rights - What the EU should do at the World Summit on Information Society, 2005
    Anne Peacock, a doctoral researcher in the Law Department of University of Essex
    "This article argues that the accessibility of information technologies is a human right, rooted in major international human rights instruments."
  • Information and Communication Technologies as Human Rights Enablers
    Rikke Frank Jorgensen, Henrik Lindholt and Lone Lindholt, The Danish Institute for Human Rights
    "Information and communication technologies (ICTs) must not be seen as a mere means of exchanging and disseminating information, but as crucial tools to improve the enjoyment of human rights."
  • Intellectual Property and Human Rights: Where to after the first WSIS?
    Catrin Pekari, University of Graz, Austria
    "This paper explores the interrelationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and human rights and identifies several current problems and potential conflicts. Starting from a historical perspective, the development of the modern IPR system and its ideological roots are evaluated against the backdrop of the contemporary societal order, including the human rights system."
• Information for Human Rights. Part II: Case Studies From Across the Globe
• • Activism Made Easy: A Study of Amnesty International’s Online Campaign to Stop Torture
    John Lannon
    "This paper analyses the Internet’s effectiveness in one area of human rights activism: as a site for action. Through a study of Amnesty International’s Stop Torture website, which was specially designed to enable Internet users to become human rights activists, it presents some of the lessons learned, and outlines the doubts that exist over the Internet’s value in this area."
  • Towards A Global Network of Rights: The Experience of Nepal
    Sushma Joshi
    "Electronic resources, particularly the Internet, have become a lifeline for many human rights activists around the world who otherwise do not have access to global information networks."
  • Information: an obstacle for human rights?
    Serguei Chabanov
    "Overall, human rights establishment tends to view Internet in a positive light. This paper attempts to highlight some of peculiarities of the Internet and digital media and the concerns they pose when used in human rights work. It argues that certain issues are problematic enough for the Internet at present to be considered a medium so far unyielding or even hostile to the furtherance of human rights cause."
  • Breaking Through the “Golden Shield”
    Garden Networks
    "This paper reveals the critical role of China’s biggest Internet surveillance system in web repression, the Golden Shield, as well as some current technological and surveillance methods employed by China. It will discuss efforts to overcome Internet censorship in order to help people in China access human rights information."
  • Human Rights Organisations and the Internet in Belarus
    Marina Sokolova and Mikhail Doroshevich
    "This article will analyse to what extent human rights activists in Belarus have begun to tap into the power of the Internet, and what has yet to be done."
  • The American Antitrust Institute: Introduction to a Virtual Public Interest Network
    Albert Foer
    "AAI’s experience demonstrates that it is possible with the help of the Internet to build from scratch and in a relatively short time an influential public interest organisation dedicated to research, education, and advocacy in the field of antitrust."