DUSHANBE, July 5, 2016, Asia-Plus — The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) has formally condemned countries that block or limit citizens’ Internet access.
The 47-member U.N. council on July 1 passed a resolution that reaffirms and expands its previous stances upholding Internet rights across the globe, noting, “The same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression.”
The resolution condemns violations including torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and gender-based violence enacted against anyone expressing themselves on the Internet. Additionally, the HRC “condemns unequivocally” any attempt to intentionally restrict access to information online and calls on all nations to halt such practices.
This is the HRC”s third online-rights resolution since 2012 and the first to include language about blocking internet access,
The Hill
reports. The resolution also notes that online privacy is essential to realizing the right to freedom of expression, and it recognizes the need to remove disparities in internet access between women and men. Particularly, it stresses “the importance of empowering all women and girls by enhancing their access to information and communications technology,” promoting their digital literacy, and encouraging them to pursue careers in IT fields.
The resolution is non-binding, but it can be used as support in future cases of online human-rights violations.
According to
The Hill
, the digital rights group
Access Now
has counted at least 15 Internet shutdowns around the globe in 2015, and 20 in the first half of this year.
“Shutdowns harm everyone and allow human rights crackdowns to happen in the dark, with impunity,” said
Access Now’s
Deji Olukotun.
“Citizens can’t participate fully in democratic discourse during elections. The Human Rights Council’s principled stance is a crucial step in telling the world that shutdowns need to stop.”
Meanwhile, Tajik authorities are seeking tighter control over Internet traffic. We will recall that President Emomali Rahmon on January 25 signed a bill on the creation of a central communications hub in Tajikistan, a move critics say is meant to tighten government control over the Internet and cellular communications. The law requires all mobile operators and Internet providers to provide their services to clients only via the Single Communication Nexus. The hub is reportedly needed to improve “national and information security.”
Rahmon signed the bill two months after Tajik lawmakers passed legislation allowing the authorities to block the Internet and telephone system during “counterterrorism operations” in the country.
Access to a number of social-networking and news sites — including
Facebook
,
Twitter
, and
RFE/RL”s Tajik-language
and
Russian-language
websites — has been disrupted several times since 2013.
We will recall that access to
Asia-Plus
,
Ozodagon
and
Radio Liberty’s
Tajik-language
websites as well as to
Twitter
,
Facebook
and
Odonoklassniki
social-networking website has remained blocked in Tajikistan for already second month.
U.S. and EU officials have raised concerns both over restrictions of access to the Internet as a whole and blockage of the Internet and over blockage of access to individual sites.
