Still in the euphoria of the bashing she received following
the dust raised following the prohibition of the gay rights in Nigeria and some
other African countries, the United States’ secretary of state, Mrs. Hillary
Clinton has declared Internet freedom as all about multi-stakeholders.
Clinton gave this insight in her speech at the recently
concluded Internet Freedom conference at The Hague in the Netherlands, calling
for the respect of human rights both online and offline.
“I’m pleased we also have representatives from the private
sector and civil society. So it all adds up to a multi-stakeholder event,” she
declared.
She also noted the commemoration of the 2011 Human Rights
Day last Saturday, December 10, which is the anniversary of the adoption of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, thus making the forum a timely session.
According to her, in the 63 years since that achievement,
the world has been implementing a global commitment around the rights and
freedoms of people everywhere, no matter where they live or who they are.
“And today, as people increasingly turn to the internet to
conduct important aspects of their lives, we have to make sure that human
rights are as respected online as offline,” she said, stressing that after all,
the right to express one’s views, practice one’s faith, peacefully assemble
with others to pursue political or social change; these are all rights to which
all human beings are entitled, whether they choose to exercise them in a city
square or an internet chat room.
She enjoined stakeholders that since they worked together to
secure these rights in the material world, “we must work together in this
century to secure them in cyberspace.”
This, she said, is an
urgent task before stakeholders describing it as most urgent, especially for
those around the world whose words are now censored, who are imprisoned because
of what they or others have written online, who are blocked from accessing
entire categories of internet content, or who are being tracked by governments
seeking to keep them from connecting with one another.
She cited an instance with the Syrian blogger, Mr. Anas
Maarawi who was arrested on July 1, this year, after demanding that President
Asad leave office, but government has not charged him with anything, but he
remains in detention.
Clinton decried that in both Syria and Iran, many other
online activists too many to mention, have been detained, imprisoned, beaten,
and even killed for expressing their views and organizing their fellow citizens.
“And perhaps the most well known blogger in Russia, Alexei
Navalny, was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 days in jail after he took part in
protests over the Russian elections,” she lamented.
In China, Mrs. Clinton further decried that several dozen
companies recently signed a pledge in October, committing to strengthen their
“self-management, self-restraint, and strict self-discipline.”
For her, if they (Chinese)
were talking about fiscal responsibility, everyone may agree, rather,
they were talking about offering web-based services to the Chinese people,
which is code for getting in line with the government’s tight control over the
internet.
These incidents globally, she said, remind others of their
stake in this struggle, which does not belong only to those on the front lines
and suffering presently, noting that it belongs to all citizens of the world.
She attributed this to the fact that first, every citizen of
the world has a responsibility to support human rights and fundamental freedoms
everywhere.
“Second, because the benefits of the network grow as the
number of users grow,” she said, yet the internet is not exhaustible or
competitive.
Mrs. Clinton pointed out her use of the internet does not
diminish other users, explaining that on the contrary, the more people are
online and contributing ideas, the more valuable the entire network becomes to
all the other users.
This way, she said, all users, through the billions of
individual choices made about what information to seek or share, fuel innovation,
enliven public debates, quench a thirst for knowledge, and connect people in
ways that distance and cost made impossible just a generation ago.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
