2016 – Economic, Social and Cultural rights (ESCRs) and the internet

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Launch date: December 9th at the IGF Mexico

The 46 country reports gathered here illustrate the link between the internet and economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs). Some of the topics will be familiar to information and communications technology for development (ICT4D) activists: the right to health, education and culture; the socioeconomic empowerment of women using the internet; the inclusion of rural and indigenous communities in the information society; and the use of ICT to combat the marginalisation of local languages. Others deal with relatively new areas of exploration, such as using 3D printing technology to preserve cultural heritage, creating participatory community networks to capture an “inventory of things” that enables socioeconomic rights, crowdfunding to realise rights, or the negative impact of algorithms on calculating social benefits. Workers’ rights receive some attention, as does the use of the internet during natural disasters.

Ten thematic reports frame the country reports. These deal both with overarching concerns when it comes to ESCRs and the internet – such as institutional frameworks and policy considerations – as well as more specific issues that impact on our rights: the legal justification for online education resources, the plight of migrant domestic workers, the use of digital databases to protect traditional knowledge from biopiracy, digital archiving, and the impact of multilateral trade deals on the international human rights framework.

The reports highlight the institutional and country-level possibilities and challenges that civil society faces in using the internet to enable ESCRs. They also suggest that in a number of instances, individuals, groups and communities are using the internet to enact their socioeconomic and cultural rights in the face of disinterest, inaction or censure by the state.


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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Some rights reserved.
Global Information Society Watch 2016
ISBN 978-92-95102-69-9
APC-201611-CIPP-R-EN-P-259

Credits


Preface

  • Lea Shaver


Why focus on economic, social and cultural rights? Reflections on trends, achievements and challenges in building a global movement working for human rights on the internet

  • Anriette Esterhuysen


Thematic Reports
Key considerations: Economic, social and cultural rights and the internet

  • Alan Finlay
  • Deborah Brown


ICTs, SDGs and economic, social and cultural rights

  • David Souter


The right to educational resources and the internet

  • Andrew Rens


The digital protection of traditional knowledge: Questions raised by the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library in India

  • Sunil Abraham
  • Vidushi Marda


Preserving our digital culture for the future – overcoming obstacles through collaboration

  • Julia Brungs
  • Stephen Wyber


Labour, migrant communities and the internet

  • Sonia Randhawa


The impact of free trade agreements for ESCRs on the internet

  • J. Carlos Lara
  • Claudio Ruiz
  • Gisela Perez de Acha


Towards an international advocacy strategy for economic, social and cultural rights and the internet

  • Deborah Brown


Economic, social and cultural rights and the Internet technical community: A snapshot

  • Avri Doria


Visualising human rights at ICANN

  • Niels ten Oever


Annex II: Country reports grouped by theme


Annex I: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights


Country Reports

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