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]