ICTs in support of human
rights, democracy and good governance
ICTs
in Support of Human Rights, Democracy and Good
Governance
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The common
ground upon which information and communication
technologies (ICTs) and human rights can be analyzed
was forged two years ago at the United Nations
Millennium Summit, which resulted in a declaration
that affirmed common global commitments to the
protection of the vulnerable, the alleviation of
poverty, and the rectification of corrupt structures
and processes – particularly in those countries in
which there is a dearth of ‘rule of law’.
The world's leaders resolved to ‘spare no
effort to promote democracy and strengthen the rule of
law, as well as respect for all internationally
recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms,
including the right to development.’
Attention to the protection of human rights through the use of new
communication technologies is an area of growing
interest, not only from the point of view of the
technology and communications sectors, but from the
vantage point of those working toward the betterment
of governance mechanisms and the continued development
of an equitable ‘global civil society’.
This includes those who work at the community
‘grassroots’ level, as they form networks of
collaboration that extend the span of their missions
to the international stage, as well as major
public/private sector and governmental entities.
The
current period of preparation for the upcoming World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) – in which
the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has a
leading managerial role - offers an excellent
opportunity to address tensions that exist between
national, regional and global models of governance –
particularly where hotly debated topics like human
rights draw to the forefront of discussion key issues
like transparency, accountability, and the
universality of human rights principles.
This paper was written in the summer of 2002 as part of the preparatory
work of the ITU Strategy and Policy Unit for the
World Summit (See http://www.itu.int/wsis/
for further details).
The paper analyzes human rights and governance issues as they
pertain to ICTs for the WSIS forum, with a focus on
the role of those who protect human rights and foster
good governance. Various players are increasingly leveraging and applying ICTs
amidst various contending national, corporate and
supranational interests, and their work represents a
significant challenge for traditional distributions of
power in the international system.
The way in which new communication technologies
may be able to help realize some of the goals of the
2000 Millennium Declaration are explored in this
paper, and various short case studies illustrate the relevance and importance of these
discussion points.
The
objective of this analysis is to adopt a rights-based
perspective on the major established development goals
– specifically encompassing the protection of human
rights – that are to be realized through the
Declaration.
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