Human rights are the rights of all human beings, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion or any other factor.
In the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it has been propagated under thirty Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is an incontrovertible right of people of different nationalities entire the world.
It gives priority to number of issues, including the right to life, liberty, and the right to freedom of expression.
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created in the aftermath of World War II, the worst humanitarian catastrophe ever to occur in the world, and the internationally adopted human rights treaties and legislation associated with it further protect these human rights.
All of this are include as subject to international human rights law. These agreements have been signed and ratified by many member states of the United Nations, including Sri Lanka.
Digital human rights emphasize the protection of these human rights, which are available to people offline to the Internet, in the digital space as well. The global framework based on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is currently active on human rights, also applies to digital rights.
Digitization in the contemporary world allows data to be exchanged across borders in cyberspace. Digital tools and devices have made it easier than ever to gather our information and data.
There are many instances in the world today where this affects human privacy and other human rights. But there are also problems with bringing these new realities under the existing human rights legal framework.
Therefore, some emphasize the need for updated new rules and regulations. In such a situation, how to protect the rights of people outside the Internet in the online space is a significant challenge to the field of human rights in the 21st century.
Today, the number of Internet users are rising in both developed and developing countries. Statistically, 4 billion people, or more than half of the world’s population, currently use the Internet for various purposes.
Many users in the 90th century used the Internet to search websites, download from the Internet, and exchange messages via e-mail. But with the arrival of social media, the nature of the Internet has changed.
With this, the technological challenges faced by the people of the world due to digitization have taken a change.
Digital rights are very important when using the Internet space to allow free speech, dissemination of ideas, sharing and use of information across borders.
As such, the Internet space provides a powerful platform for rights such as two-way communication, expression of opinion, publication and sharing of information. Today, public websites, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and YouTube can provide opportunities to spread their ideas globally.
Many of these memberships are free of charge. Especially with the proliferation of social media, democracy has created an active space for political, social and economic reforms that can mobilize human rights activists.
This is especially important for groups that advocate alternative ideologies. This has created an alternative space for a broader dialogue on a variety of topics that the mainstream media does not pay attention to or deliberately censors.
However, freedom of expression, like any other right we enjoy, has its limitations. Those limitations also apply to the digital space.
The Internet space was originally created for an open liberal approach. But as it expanded day by day and created more complex situations, there were opinions that it needed some control. What are Internet Freedom and its Reasonable Limitations? Is an unresolved debate to this day?
We also need to identify threats to the use of Internet space. There, governments restrict these rights through restrictions on Internet access, censorship of websites, threats, intimidation, imprisonment, as well as laws restricting or restricting the use of social media in general.
Source; https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fotn&year=2020
Freedom House, an active group on democratic governance, says in its latest observation report:
“Internet connection is no longer a convenience but a necessity during the Covid 19 epidemic. Apparently many human activities such as commerce, education, healthcare, politics, social integration are conducted online. But digitization poses clear challenges to human rights and democratic governance. ” 3
The report identifies three trends that have affected Internet freedom.
First, with the epidemic situation in Covid 19, political authorities sometimes use the epidemic as a pretext to restrict access to information.
Blocking independent websites, arresting people on false charges of spreading false information.
Second, the authorities justify the unnecessarily expanded monitoring powers by citing COVID-19 as the cause, sometimes even using new technologies.
Third, instead of protecting users from the new situation, each government has enacted its own Internet regulations restricting the flow of information across national borders, thereby promoting national sovereignty and cutting off existing Internet connections and information exchanges globally.
The Internet is a global public space. Everyone has an equal right to access it. But as is often the case in globalization, the limitations of Internet access further exacerbate socio-economic inequalities.
This situation is also common to the internet space. On the other hand, women are subjected to various forms of violence and pressure that are not directed at men.
The ever-expanding use of the Internet has also posed challenges to asserting the right to privacy.
When exchanging information on a large scale for a variety of purposes in the digital space, information is unlimited; There is a risk of misuse such as unauthorized scanning and data extraction.
This is especially true of our personal information.
Personal information includes financial information such as our bank accounts, credit card numbers, family and relatives’ information, purchasing information, and even very sensitive data such as personal health information.
The information obtained may be used for commercial or political purposes as well as for any other purpose. We also have a responsibility to protect our privacy when we release any information to the Internet.
The protection of human rights is a topic that is gaining wide global attention today.
Who has access to the digital space? Can ideas be freely expressed in that space? What are its barrier challenges? Who creates and distributes content? To what extent is that content inclusive? Does everyone have equal access to opportunities in the Internet space? Is very important for human rights in the digital space.
It is imperative that governments, organizations and grassroots groups, which make global contributions to the protection of those human rights, reconsider the framework for ensuring and protecting human rights in the digital age of the 21st century.