[governance] Draft Statement re UN Human Rights Council

[Paul Lehto]

Below is a brief statement on "Human Rights on the Internet".  I have to go
offline for two and a half hours but then will be back online in case
anyone has comments, questions or additions to the text below.  At that
point I would hope to make some changes if any are suggested, then have it
posted for comment.    In general, I didn't like the title "Human Rights on
the Internet" because it makes as little sense to me as raising the
question of human rights on the mountains or in the valleys, or on the
oceans, etc.  Human rights exist everywhere, including the internet.  The
question is the constant need to keep awareness of them high

*Human Rights on the Internet *

Rights without borders – also known as human rights – have met their
technological twin in the form of the global Internet, a technology without
borders.

The open architecture of the Internet facilitates and enhances many
pre-existing human rights, including but not limited to rights of free
expression, rights of information, petition, association and assembly,
creative rights, and the right to earn a livelihood and contribute to the
culture of society.  Internet technology and design choices simultaneously
extends human interaction in multiple directions regardless of borders, at
a far lower cost, and on a more democratic basis than previously imaginable.

This powerful symbiosis between natural birthrights and the nature of the
Internet as a rights-enhancing technology has caused discourse about the
Internet to incorporate many lofty attributes that are further fueled by
already being partially realized, causing (among other things) thought
leaders regarding the Internet to sometimes be referred to as
“evangelists.”  Generally speaking, these rights-enhancing aspects have
caused the Internet to reach the loftiest planes of human hope, joining
democracy and religion at the level of promising “a more abundant life” for
all, without the prominent downsides often associated with actual some
implementations of government and religion.

If the Internet, as a network of networks, is a great force for human
flourishing, and if humans have the inborn desire to flourish under
conditions of self-determination, the most powerful question to ask
concerning rights on the Internet is not so much where these rights arise
from, or how they may be further enforced in ancient courts, but where any
claimed “right” to interfere with the freedom of the Internet arises from,
and how such a right of interference can be legitimately asserted and
enforced.  Given that the very nature of the Internet is to facilitate
behaviors often called rights and freedoms, and given that the Internet as
a whole is owner-less and international, how can any business, government,
or person both obtain a right to interfere with the freedom of the
Internet, and also legitimately enforce that right?  In this light, any
lack of clarity deemed to exist by some regarding where human rights “come
from” pales in comparison to the difficulties of coherently positing and
persuading others of a right to interfere with the freedom of others on the
Internet.  To the extent such interference becomes known publicly, it will
be highly likely to suffer the same fate as SOPA and PIPA legislation
recently did, because any such right to interfere with inherent human
rights and freedom is far more difficult to successfully theorize and
explain than the human rights we all want for ourselves, but may or may not
extend to all others equally.

Access to the full benefits and promise of the Internet can be interfered
with or impeded at numerous levels and by numerous actors, including
businesses, governments, individuals, engineers, web designers,
administrators.    Arguably, businesses are in the position to make more
choices that actually or potentially impair or impede human rights on the
Internet than government. Some “governmental” interference with the
Internet is driven by business concern lobbying, such that much
“governmental” interference can be attributed to businesses.   Regardless
of the relative amounts of responsibility one may assess to each, it is
extremely clear that both governments and businesses can and are acting in
ways that interfere with the Internet, either by failing to fully
understand the Internet, or by pursuing narrow interests over the public
interest as a whole.   Any such government or business that acts to impair
or impede the global freedom of the Internet should not be heard to claim
that they “have the Internet” (in the case of a nation that filters or
otherwise interferes) or that they “support the Internet” (in the case of a
business acting in fact to impede access to the full Internet, or censor
content, etc.)

Although Internet companies are obliged to abide by national legal rules of
host countries, they are even more obliged to follow global human rights
laws like freedom of expression than those national laws. Claims that
domestic laws require business cooperation with censorship, etc., should be
met with the assertion of higher laws and norms than those of a single
country.

In the general context of market freedom, the development of new
technologies will always precede the question of the extent of their
regulation.  Yet, as human activity in the technology expands, some form of
regulation is inevitable, just as it is impossible to imagine cities
without any regulation, even though lack of regulation is possible in the
countryside or wilderness.   However, the pace of innovation and expansion
on the Internet guarantees that no regulator can sufficiently keep pace.
This requires deep commitment to human rights on the part of engineers and
others who are creating the Internet in real time.

The pre-existing duty of all nations to support the diffusion of education
concerning human rights takes on a special urgency and importance in the
context of the Internet, because important structural and design decisions
regarding the Internet will always continue to be made by Internet
engineers and administrators at a speed and at a point in time where it is
impossible for detailed guidance or best practices to exist. In direct
effect, the “governance” of the Internet, in significant part, takes place
in real time and in diverse places, often by engineers and programmers
making design decisions, making a decentralized awareness and knowledge of
human rights norms by people working on the Internet especially critical to
preventing serious human rights issues from emerging. Knowledge about human
rights, like the Internet itself, is a form of power that not only can be
decentralized, but must be decentralized, given the diffuse points of
potential impact on rights on the Internet, and the lack of any centralized
ownership or control that can legitimately affect the whole.

Therefore, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) declares that the Internet
is, and by rights ought to be, a place for the full expression of human
freedoms and equality, the IGF condemns violations of human rights on the
Internet and wherever they may occur, and the IGF calls upon the United
Nations and all people to support the utmost diffusion of education about
human rights so that developers, engineers, administrators and users of the
Internet can maximize for all the value of the Internet as an enhancement
of the human experience, making ever more real the human flourishing that
is both the reality and the promise of the Internet.
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