POINT/COUNTERPOINT
Yes Internet access is a basic human
right, and within 10 years, it will be an essential
human right, because it will play an increasing
gatekeeper role in three components of our rights
as humans to realize our full potential: freedom of
expression, democratic participation, and economic
livelihood.
The Greatest Generation understood the importance of freedom, including freedom of expression.
Having survived the tyranny and oppression that
engendered World War II, the General Assembly
of the United Nations announced the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights ( www.un.org/en/
includes freedom to hold Natalie Bernasconi
Internet access is not a basic human
right. It can contribute to meaningful and profound
communication between disparate cultural groups,
it can provide educational opportunities to individ-
uals at a lower cost than ever before in the history
of the world, and it can offer vast audiences that
are no longer limited by geography or nationalized
institutions. Internet access can deliver all of these
societal benefits and more, and yet none of these
makes it a basic human right.
Basic human rights do not govern what an individual can receive. They refer instead to components inherent in the makeup of social structures
that allow an individual to remain an individual,
pursuing individual aspirations and expressions, even
while in the context of the
group. A basic human right
allows one to remain true
to oneself as a human being
rather than subsuming one’s
identity into a group construct. Consider “life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness,”
as promoted by the pens of
No
James Maxlow
