Access to the Internet as a Human Right

[Music]

over the last two decades or so

we’ve seen a meteoric rise of

technological development globally

whether we’re talking about automation

the gig economy robotics

or an all-encompassing digital

revolution

people all over the world are

experiencing rapid changes in the way we

live

work worship and play

the way we experience one another the

way we receive

store sell and disseminate information

have all

changed dramatically and continues to do

so

at an exponential rate the world

economic forum notes

that the fourth industrial revolution

represents a fundamental change

in the way we live work and relate to

one another it is a new

chapter in human development enabled by

extraordinary technology advances

commensurate with those of the first

second and third industrial revolutions

but perhaps for me anyway most

significantly

the world economic forum emphasizes that

the fourth industrial revolution is

about more than just

technology driven change it’s an

opportunity to help everyone

including leaders policy makers and

people from

all income groups and nations to harness

converging technologies in order to

create an inclusive

human centered future the real

opportunity is to look beyond technology

and find ways to give the greatest

number of people

the ability to positively impact their

families

organizations and communities

to my mind for this to work we need to

spend some time considering community

inclusion and equality or perhaps the

lack of these is the more fundamental

conversation

we already know that south africa is one

of the most unequal societies in the

world

and this inequality is very acutely

experienced

when one considers the differences in

accessibility to technology

and more broadly the internet this can

also be considered from a global

perspective when we consider the

differences between

the west and the rest

affecting the way nations in the global

south are able to interact with the rest

of the world

from a trade economic and

socio-political perspective

this gap is not only a technological one

but touches on almost every area of

human development and agency

efferdo notes for example that in the

west

genetic sequencing is now unbelievably

cheap

and humans and machines are augmenting

and assisting each other with knowledge

and skills

meanwhile there are four billion people

in the global south who lack reliable

internet access

for africa the second industrial

revolution is yet to be fully

experienced

as nearly 1.3 billion people lack access

to electricity

the problem rests not with the failure

of the third world to catch up

to the fourth industrial revolution but

it is how the fourth industrial

revolution

raises concerns around issues of power

asymmetry

and the resulting threats of

significantly increased inequality

disempowerment and exploitation

instead of the internet then bringing

communities closer together

there’s an inherent risk because of the

inequality of access

of widening the gaps between people

and so how does one ensure that we move

into a just an equitable fourth and

fifth industrial revolution

which improves the lives of people and

places emphasis on community

equality and human-centered sustainable

development

south africa has attempted to make very

useful strides towards improving

universal access to the internet

last year the competition commission an

independent statutory body

regulating competition between firms in

the market

reached landmark deals with major data

providers in the country

that dramatically reduced the cost of

data

but without adequate infrastructure in

many parts of the country

and the high cost of smartphones this

has been of little use to many

south africans and now

with the onset of covet 19 the class gap

in this country and globally is more

acute than ever

the wealthier an individual is the more

inherently safer they are from the virus

able to opt out of potentially unsafe

daily activities

like grocery shopping whilst millions of

people

many of whom are elderly stand in long

snaking queues to collect social

security payments

this has in different quarters of

society reignited the call for access to

the internet

to be considered a human right and this

is my call today

let us begin again to ask the central

questions

that will reaffirm the need for internet

access to be declared a right in terms

of our constitution

so that citizens are able to take the

necessary legal steps to enforce

and progressively realize this right

since the internet became more widely

accessible in the 1990s

it’s enabled new products and services

improved economic efficiency

transformed access to information and

facilitated better collaboration

between governments business and

citizens

in order for us to begin to leverage the

internet in this way

certain things are critical the main

being connectivity and access for

all recent estimates suggest

that less than 10 percent of people in

the least developed countries

have access to the internet compared to

more than 80 percent

in developed countries of course like in

south africa access is particularly poor

in rural areas second is the question of

affordability

with the internet being generally more

expensive in relation to the average

income

in the least developed countries of

course this makes it extremely difficult

for poorer communities

to access internet-enabled services

lastly reliability and resilience are

critical if governments wish to grow

their economies

and increase economic opportunities of

their citizens

full participation in the digital

economy requires

uninterrupted access to the internet

where this is unavailable developing and

underdeveloped countries will miss out

on economic opportunities

another question that seriously

confronts developing countries is a

reliable power supply

an issue that has plagued african

countries for many years

as a start it’s also important to

consider this possibility from a legal

lens

from the perspective of south african

law but also international law

the united nations as early as 2011

recognize that the

internet is a catalyst for a number of

human rights

most notably the right to freedom of

expression

and in 2016 a report from the human

rights council of the united nations

general assembly

declared access to the internet to be a

basic human

right and the substance of this really

involves two central components

first access to online content with as

few restrictions as possible

and second and important in the context

of emerging nations

availability of the necessary

infrastructure and icts

to enable access to the internet

and for the many who will correctly note

that there are other significant rights

that we have yet

to realize let us begin to see the right

internet access as an enabler to achieve

several other rights freedom of

expression

also outlined in section 16 of the south

african constitution

is an enabler of other rights including

the right to education

and rights to freedom of association

notably the right to freedom of

expression

and the internet as an enabler of same

have a fundamental

impact on the ability of citizens to

enforce their social

political and economic rights this plays

a critical role in creating a more equal

society

where citizens enjoy more equal access

to resources and amenities

in addition to this section 32 of the

south african constitution

provides for a right to access to

information despite

not currently providing for an explicit

right to internet access

what is significant for me about these

rights is that section 9 of the

constitution

the right to equality must surely

underpin them

if that is the case are we really on a

level playing field

in terms of accessing these critical

rights

very recently we know there has been a

significant debate as to whether or not

learners should be able to go back to

face-to-face learning

amidst the covet-19 pandemic and the

significant risk to public health

that would go with the opening of

schools parents of learners attending

public schools debated back and forth

as to whether or not they believed their

children would be safe

versus the risk associated with leaving

their children out of school

as many parents who were not able

to work from home online began to return

to work gruesome stories of child abuse

of children left alone at home began to

emerge

shifting the issue to one of public

safety whilst this very public debate

waged on

private schools provided their learners

with online material which allowed them

continuous and

uninterrupted access to education even

today

whilst many schools have adopted a

phased approach to learning

many lessons continue online allowing

private schools

to significantly minimize risk of mass

infections amongst learners

whilst learners in public schools either

take the risk

or spend the foreseeable future at home

further widening the gap

between rich and poor

and so from this example it’s clear that

access to the internet has also begun to

intertwine

with issues of public health another

right affected in this time is equal

access to justice

one of the key principles in law is that

justice must not only be done

but it must be seen to be done this is

why open access to courts is so

significant

so that citizens are able to view and

learn from various court proceedings

happening in our myriad of legal fora

with the onset of covet 19 many courts

have been forced to close their doors

understandably to limit the number of

people in a particular space

but where are a number of hearings still

happening

online as members of the legal

profession

robe and jump online from the comfort of

their studies

ordinary citizens are denied the

opportunity to learn

from and engage the legal process a

process which must belong to all

citizens

if it is to be effective in shaping the

law to the will of the people

equal access to affordable or free and

reliable internet access could

significantly narrow the gap in relation

to all of the examples provided

even before covert 19 we’ve seen

different and interesting ways

in which the internet has been used to

hold the state accountable

notable examples of this were the arab

spring which demonstrated new

ways of mobilization and news reporting

similarly to the black lives matter and

zimbabwean lives matter movements

which demonstrated recently citizens

being increasingly

vocal about police brutality in the u.s

and in zimbabwe

and south africa the hashtag metoo

campaign saw the emergence or resurgence

of feminist discourse amongst people all

over the world and enabled women

globally to begin speaking

openly about the atrocities of sexual

violence

that they have experienced and these

were notoriously secret

crimes the internet has begun

to provide victims with a global voice

in 2008 the government of rwanda

embarked on a nationwide rollout

of fiber optic as a backbone

infrastructure for broadband

this optic fiber connected different

parts of the country and provided high

capacity cross-border links

with onward connectivity to submarine

cables

to help facilitate this initiative to

improve the provision of internet access

to rwandan citizens

the international telecommunication

union and the rwanda utilities

regulatory authority

undertook a project to deploy wireless

broadband

connectivity across the country with a

focus on rural areas specifically

the project is helping to provide free

or low-cost digital access for schools

hospitals

and for under-served populations to

access online services and

information the network now covers 90

percent of rwanda’s population

political will is critically important

to achieve these goals government should

continue to focus its efforts on

partnerships

with the private sector to achieve

similar goals

google’s project loon was launched in

2017 to enable the use of giant balloons

to bring broader internet access to

rural communities

one balloon is the size of a tennis

court and are self-sustaining and can

provide coverage for over

five thousand square kilometers these

partnerships are useful

but in developing these alliances

government should see them as a

temporary

solution and use them as a learning

opportunity

for us to develop our own sustainable

solutions

the competition commission in its report

relating to the cost of data in south

africa

makes useful recommendations to the

state the main recommendation it makes

is that local and national government

under the lead of the department of

telecommunications

spearheads the development of free

public wi-fi

in low-income areas including commuter

points like train stations and taxi

ranks

in my view this must be more than a

recommendation

the commission has broad powers to make

rulings which affect the economic

inclusion of south africans

although we’ve not seen significant

litigation to this effect

it would be useful to see civil society

organizations

beginning to make demands on the state

through the courts

for meaningful realization of a right to

internet access

as a way of creating a more equal

society

and a more just fourth industrial

revolution

and nothing stops the legislature from

legislating to this effect

to give citizens an opportunity to begin

enforcing

progressive realization to a possible

right to access to the internet

i would argue in fact that the rights to

access to information must be developed

through case law

to include a right to internet access

in fact should the state not take this

seriously

we risk continuing to relegate our

population

to the corners of economic activity

rendering them post-colonial orphans who

cannot effectively compete globally

and are perpetually reliant on big

international players

and lenders

one of my personal mantras by ralph

waldo emerson is

don’t be pushed by your problems be led

by your dreams

in closing i’m taken back to a memory

from earlier this year

one of my first year law students

telling the class

and a senior member of the legal

profession who had come to give them a

talk

that in high school he had spent hours

online

watching court hearings and that this is

what had inspired him to become a lawyer

the internet gave him access and room

to dream to imagine

south africa like many emerging

countries

has significant challenges moving side

by side

with untapped potential the internet is

not only a rights enabler

but used properly it is a dream enabler

if we are to begin to solve our problems

we must surely grow and enable problem

solvers

dreamers so i want to propose

to insist that the state begins to put

our dreamers first

our young people our foot soldiers of

change

ensure that they all equally

have space to read to learn

to think to grow

to discard old ideas and stereotypes

to complain and rant to be

to imagine to dream so that they can

begin the work

of changing their own circumstances

the lives of their family and the

destinies

of their people

[Music]