Drafting a positive agenda: human rights and the internet infrastructure

There is now a broad consensus that the human rights system that applies offline should apply online.  However, to really understand and shape the human rights environment online it is necessary to go beyond looking at the content it carries and the controls which are applied to that content – we need to understand the technical design of the internet and how it is shaped by commercial forces. This paper outlines what a “human rights infrastructure of the internet” might look like – a set of requirements for the technical, commercial and governance of the Internet which would uphold human rights standards to the maximum extent possible. And outlines how such an understanding could inform the work of a range of progressive actors. This is all the more urgent as the present the Internet governance regime is “up for grabs” – the achievements since the WSIS process of 2003 and 2005 are being reviewed and the loci, actors and processes by which the internet is governed are under intense scrutiny.