{"id":160872,"date":"2021-11-12T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=160872"},"modified":"2021-11-11T17:12:24","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T22:12:24","slug":"why-caribbean-countries-need-to-make-the-internet-a-basic-human-right-sooner-rather-than-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2021\/11\/why-caribbean-countries-need-to-make-the-internet-a-basic-human-right-sooner-rather-than-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Caribbean countries need to make the internet a basic human right sooner rather than later"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Noting how crucial the internet has become, especially over the past year and a half, one might be surprised that it has not been formally made a basic right or a utility. In our latest article, we discuss the need for Caribbean countries to designate the internet a basic human right.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Over 10 years ago, in one of our earliest articles<\/a>, we drew attention to the then ongoing conversation about whether the internet should be considered a basic human right in the Caribbean region. In that initial article, we weighed the pros and cons, and at the time, we held the view that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it is undeniable that the Internet is fundamentally changing all aspects of life and society. While we in the Caribbean are still grappling to ensure that basic services are provided to all citizens, we must also be prepared to better position ourselves to ensure our longer term viability\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward a few years later to 2016, when we again sought to highlight the need for the internet to be designated a basic right in the Caribbean region. At the time, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, reportedly stated that it could be another 10 to 15 years before internet access is considered a basic human right globally. In response, we sought to make a case<\/a> that the Prime Minister was out of touch with the importance of the internet in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just four years later, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it is virtually irrefutable how integral the internet has become, and will continue to be, to our everyday lives. In the face of school closures, movement restrictions, country-wide lockdowns, to varying degrees, operations could continue, as individuals, schools, businesses and governments increasingly leveraged the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, we are on the homestretch of 2021, and it appears that globally, we are not yet able to fully manage the pandemic. Moreover, it is unlikely that operations and operating practices will completely swing back to what they had been pre-pandemic. It is more likely that businesses and organisations will lean in and leverage the internet even more, evidenced by the still growing emphasis on digital transformation across the commercial sector, in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The UN Resolution on internet access<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When we consider how crucial the internet has become to life as we know it, it may be readily assumed that the internet has been designated a basic right, similar to utilities such as electricity and water. However, technically, that is not the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, the United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding Resolution <\/a>that \u201cdeclared internet access a human right<\/em>\u201d. Although such a declaration would have made compelling optics, there were two key provisos that must be considered, which point to the impact, or lack thereof, of the Resolution. First, it was non-binding, meaning that countries that did not adhere to the Resolution, or seek to enshrine it in national law, would not be subject to any penalties. Second, the impetus for the declaration was to condemn the intentional disruption of internet access by governments, which has occurred in several instances around the world. In other words, the purpose of the Resolution was not to encourage countries to ensure that all citizens have access to the internet at a reasonable quality and price, but to make a statement when governments seek to disrupt or cut off their countries, or parts of their countries, to the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The internet is no longer a \u2018nice to have\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the Caribbean region, virtually all of our countries have acknowledged the critical nature of the internet to their continued economic and social development. However, they have not yet sought to designate the internet a basic human right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now although the importance of the internet has been evident throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate access in areas such as education, jobs, and information, to name a few, it has also highlighted some glaring gaps. For example, across the region, online education has become the norm, but there is still a significant segment of the student populations that either have not been able to afford internet access at home, or for which internet service has not been extended to their communities. It therefore means that since March 2020, when the first round of school closures occurred in the Caribbean, there are students who have not been able to access education consistently in nearly 20 months!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also important that we consider the impact of the internet in supporting and facilitating core rights and freedoms of citizens, such as the right to an education and basic healthcare, freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Increasingly, the internet is becoming integral not just in connecting citizens to these rights and freedoms, but it is also underpinning their efficient and effective operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is the internet designated a utility?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although the man on the street may already believe that the internet is a utility, once again, in the strictest sense, that is not the case in most Caribbean countries. However, similar to electricity and water, the internet has become a necessity of daily living. Based on the history of telecoms over the past 40 years, and starting with the breakup of the Bell System in the United States, telecoms and the internet are seen as a free market service in which to the extent possible, competition and market forces will dictate how the sector evolves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the Caribbean region, and to a considerable degree, most countries have maturing telecoms and internet markets, but a variety of gaps in areas such as service quality, availability and accessibility, still exist. On the other hand, and with regard to utilities, such as water and electricity, citizens have benefited from universal access programmes that supported, for example, rural electrification and the delivery of potable water country-wide. Across the region, electricity and potable water is currently available in almost every community in most countries, and most households are connected to the national distribution networks. The same cannot be said about telecoms and the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making the internet a basic right in the Caribbean<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Should Caribbean countries make the internet a basic right, it would send a clear signal to all stakeholders about the importance of this technology to the future of individual countries and the region as a whole. However, the implications would also need to be considered. For example, governments would need to be more proactive in the realignment of the telecoms and internet environment to satisfy a basic right construct. Such a realignment may not just be limited to policy and regulation, but may also need to address matters such as availability, access, service quality and affordability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the topic is an important one that countries ought to be prepared to address sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a0Image credit: rawpixel.com (freepik<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Noting how crucial the internet has become, especially over the past year and a half, one might be surprised that it has not been formally made a basic right or a utility. In our latest article, we discuss the need for Caribbean countries to designate the internet a basic human right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[32,281,43],"class_list":["post-160872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ict-tech","tag-information-society","tag-internet","tag-internet-governance","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/beautiful-girl-with-afro-hair.jpg?fit=1024%2C701&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2iE1G-FQI","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160872"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160877,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160872\/revisions\/160877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}