[governance] NYT opinion by Vint Cerf: Internet Access is not a HR

Koven Ronald kovenronald at aol.com
Fri Jan 6 07:26:03 EST 2012 

Dear All --


Those of us who fought all thru the WSIS prepcoms know that a (lower case) "right to communicate" already exists, embodied in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights giving "everyone" freedom of opinion and expression, including the foresightedly written right "to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."


We had to fight long and hard for reaffirmation of those terms in the WSIS final declarations, over the strenuous objections of the official Chinese and  Pakistani representatives and their allies.


Article 19 is both broad and specific enough to meet our needs. Effort need to be concentrated on gaining its implementation in countries where its obligations are ignored. Effort shouldn't be wasted in new rhetorical battles that neglect the "right to communicate" that we already have in principle.
  
Bests, Rony Koven



-----Original Message-----
From: Carlos A. Afonso <ca at cafonso.ca>
To: governance <governance at lists.cpsr.org>; Ian Peter <ian.peter at ianpeter.com>
Sent: Fri, Jan 6, 2012 8:05 am
Subject: Re: [governance] NYT opinion by Vint Cerf: Internet Access is not a HR


After this ongoing and fascinating exegesis of Dr Cerf's "Internet
fatwā" :), here is another good one for our thoughts:

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/ntia_letter_on_gtld_program_jan_3_2012.pdf

frt rgds

--c.a.

On 01/06/2012 08:19 AM, Ian Peter wrote:
> I think the important thing in what Vint is saying is this -
>  
> QUOTE ³The best way to characterize human rights is to identify the outcomes
> that we are trying to ensure. These include critical freedoms like freedom
> of speech and freedom of access to information ‹ and those are not
> necessarily bound to any particular technology at any particular time.² END
> QUOTE
> 
> What we currently define as the Internet wont be here forever ­ it will
> morph into another and hopefully much better global communications mechanism
> or series of mechanisms. We are already seeing Internet content being made
> available via mechanisms which would never be defined as internet, eg mobile
> phone apps, television publishing of you tube content etc.
> 
> Unfortunately the history of rights in this area from a UN perspective
> continues to be haunted by the NWICO debates of the mid 1980s and the
> projected right to communicate, vigorously opposed by USA at the time and
> some of its allies. At that time the debate was about access to broadcasting
> and therefore to a large degree access to spectrum ­ and indeed these remain
> important issues.
> 
> I would like to see our efforts going towards the right to access knowledge,
> the right to communicate, and freedom of speech. And I would like these to
> be enshrined as applicable (where appropriate) in all present and future
> media forms.
> 
> Ian Peter
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From: gpaque at gmail.com
> Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 07:33:30 -0430
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> Subject: [governance] NYT opinion by Vint Cerf: Internet Access is not a HR
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/opinion/internet-access-is-not-a-human-rig
> ht.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212
> 
> Interesting opinion piece from Vint Cerf. I am copy/pasting it here for
> those who may not be able to access it:
> January 4, 2012
> Internet Access Is Not a Human Right
> By VINTON G. CERF
> Reston, Va.
> FROM the streets of Tunis to Tahrir Square and beyond, protests around the
> world last year were built on the Internet and the many devices that
> interact with it. Though the demonstrations thrived because thousands of
> people turned out to participate, they could never have happened as they did
> without the ability that the Internet offers to communicate, organize and
> publicize everywhere, instantaneously.
> It is no surprise, then, that the protests have raised questions about
> whether Internet access is or should be a civil or human right. The issue is
> particularly acute in countries whose governments clamped down on Internet
> access in an attempt to quell the protesters. In June, citing the uprisings
> in the Middle East and North Africa, a report by the United Nations¹ special
> rapporteur 
> <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/06/united-nations-report-in
> ternet-access-is-a-human-right.html>  went so far as to declare that the
> Internet had ³become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human
> rights.² Over the past few years, courts and parliaments in countries like
> France and Estonia have pronounced Internet access a human right.
> But that argument, however well meaning, misses a larger point: technology
> is an enabler of rights, not a right itself. There is a high bar for
> something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the
> things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like
> freedom from torture or freedom of conscience. It is a mistake to place any
> particular technology in this exalted category, since over time we will end
> up valuing the wrong things. For example, at one time if you didn¹t have a
> horse it was hard to make a living. But the important right in that case was
> the right to make a living, not the right to a horse. Today, if I were
> granted a right to have a horse, I¹m not sure where I would put it.
> The best way to characterize human rights is to identify the outcomes that
> we are trying to ensure. These include critical freedoms like freedom of
> speech and freedom of access to information ‹ and those are not necessarily
> bound to any particular technology at any particular time. Indeed, even the
> United Nations report, which was widely hailed as declaring Internet access
> a human right, acknowledged that the Internet was valuable as a means to an
> end, not as an end in itself.
> What about the claim that Internet access is or should be a civil right? The
> same reasoning above can be applied here ‹ Internet access is always just a
> tool for obtaining something else more important ‹ though the argument that
> it is a civil right is, I concede, a stronger one than that it is a human
> right. Civil rights, after all, are different from human rights because they
> are conferred upon us by law, not intrinsic to us as human beings.
> While the United States has never decreed that everyone has a ³right² to a
> telephone, we have come close to this with the notion of ³universal service²
> ‹ the idea that telephone service (and electricity, and now broadband
> Internet) must be available even in the most remote regions of the country.
> When we accept this idea, we are edging into the idea of Internet access as
> a civil right, because ensuring access is a policy made by the government.
> Yet all these philosophical arguments overlook a more fundamental issue: the
> responsibility of technology creators themselves to support human and civil
> rights. The Internet has introduced an enormously accessible and egalitarian
> platform for creating, sharing and obtaining information on a global scale.
> As a result, we have new ways to allow people to exercise their human and
> civil rights.
> In this context, engineers have not only a tremendous obligation to empower
> users, but also an obligation to ensure the safety of users online. That
> means, for example, protecting users from specific harms like viruses and
> worms that silently invade their computers. Technologists should work toward
> this end.
> It is engineers ‹ and our professional associations and standards-setting
> bodies like the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ‹ that
> create and maintain these new capabilities. As we seek to advance the state
> of the art in technology and its use in society, we must be conscious of our
> civil responsibilities in addition to our engineering expertise.
> Improving the Internet is just one means, albeit an important one, by which
> to improve the human condition. It must be done with an appreciation for the
> civil and human rights that deserve protection ‹ without pretending that
> access itself is such a right.
> 
> Vinton G. Cerf <http://www.icann.org/en/biog/cerf.htm> , a fellow at the
> Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, is a vice president and
> chief Internet evangelist for Google.
> 
> Ginger (Virginia) Paque
> Diplo Foundation
> www.diplomacy.edu/ig <http://www.diplomacy.edu/ig>
> VirginiaP at diplomacy.edu
> 
> Join the Diplo community IG discussions: www.diplointernetgovernance.org
> <http://www.diplointernetgovernance.org>
> 
> 
>        
> 
> 
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