Human Rights in Cyberspace

Cees Hamelink's paper addresses human rights as they relate to the opportunities and challenges offered by the internet. Hamelink asks the re-current question: "is cyberspace giving rise to new forms of democratic [electronic] governance?"

Hamelink suggests that viewed from a liberal perspective the internet acts as a place where conventional rules do not apply and a lack of governance is considered good. Opposers to this view see the internet as a place for potential criminal activity where public policy is important in controlling or restricting, for example, pornographic or neo-Nazi websites.

Hamelink believes that when it comes to cyberspace, human rights should be recognised both individually and collectively. Hamelink states "Conventional theories on human rights imply limitations to the understanding of human rights that erode the effective implementation of the very basic claims they enunciate. These theories are characterized by their exclusive emphasis on individual rights; their limited interpretation of the concept ‘freedom’; their limited understanding of the concept ‘equality’; their limited scope for ‘horizontal effect’; and their lack of institutional consideration."

According to the paper "all people matter" and no one should be excluded. Yet, as Hamelink points out "77% of the world population has only 5% of the world’s telephone lines" and the communication gap in the world is not decreasing but increasing. Hamelink notes that the United Nations Development Program's support of telecommunications in developing countries went down from "US $27 million in 1990 to US$2.2 million in 1995."

For governance in cyberspace to create equal entitlement to its resources "far reaching changes of the current political practices in such areas as development assistance, transfer of technology, intellectual property protection, and space cooperation" will be needed. Changes would require a "drastic increase in overseas development assistance in the field of communication and under conditions more favourable to recipient parties..."

Hamelink describes human rights lobbies as continuing to add social problems to their framework of listed rights. He points that this does not necessarily mean that the actual implementation of human rights is strengthened. Among the lists of core human right lists, Hamelink includes twelve "core" rights (Jongman, A.J. and Schmid, A.P., 1994: 8).

They include:

1. The right to life
2. The right not to be tortured
3. The right not to be arbitrarily arrested
4. The right to a fair trial
5. The right not to be discriminated against
6. The right to freedom of association
7. The right to political participation
8. The right to freedom of expression
9. The right to food
10. The right to health care
11. The right to education
12. The right to fair working conditions

The United Nations World Conference on Human Rights (at Vienna in 1993) "reaffirms the solemn commitment of all States to fulfill their obligations to promote universal respect for, and observance and protection of, all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, other instruments relating to human rights, and international law. The universal nature of these rights and freedoms is beyond question." Hamelink suggests that having this universal recognition does not suggest that implementation at local levels will be similar.

Hamelink is one of the initiators of "The People’s Communication Charter" which seeks to articulate essential rights and responsibilities that ordinary people have in relation to their cultural environment." Its purpose is to attempt to help "redress some of the weaknesses inherent in the conventional human rights regime..." and it "aspires to a democratic and sustainable organisation of the world’s communication structures and information flows." Hamelink describes the text for the charter as "a point of reference" because it does not adequately reflect the ideas behind it.

The Charter seeks to provide a framework for people who share a belief that people should be active and critical participants in their social reality and capable of governing themselves. The People’s Communication Charter could be a first step in the development of a permanent movement concerned with the quality of our cultural environment. The Charter is an initiative of the Third World Network (Penang, Malaysia), the Centre for Communication & Human Rights (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), the Cultural Environment Movement (USA), the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), and the World Association for Christian Communication.