Posts Tagged ‘European Union’

United Nations: Disconnecting People From the Internet Is a Violation of Human Rights

Published by pratyushkp on June 13th, 2011 - in Social, Technology

Image via Wikipedia

post Authored by Stan Schroeder from Mashable

The United Nations has declared Internet access a human right, and disconnecting people from it is against international law.

The recent UN report explores the issues of Internet access in great detail, both on the infrastructural level and as a matter of access to content.

“There should be as little restriction as possible to the flow of information via the Internet, except in few, exceptional, and limited circumstances prescribed by international human rights law,” the report says.

It recognizes that there are certain circumstances in which restricting the information flow on the Internet may be legitimate, such as cyber attacks. It also points out that states often misuse their power with this regard.

“In many instances, states restrict, control, manipulate and censor content disseminated via the Internet without any legal basis, or on the basis of broad and ambiguous laws, without justifying the purpose of such actions. … such actions are clearly incompatible with states’ obligations under international human rights law, and often create a broader ‘chilling effect’ on the right to freedom of opinion and expression,” the report says.

The report also strongly recommends against disconnecting people from the Internet — often considered an anti-piracy measure, for example in France — under any circumstances.

The report “considers cutting off users from Internet access, regardless of the justification provided, including on the grounds of violating intellectual property rights law, to be disproportionate and thus a violation of article 19, paragraph 3, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

The UN’s report echoes a European Parliament directive from 2008, which asked individual countries to “avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil liberties and human rights … such as the interruption of Internet access.”

With both the EU and the UN calling Internet access a human right, we hope disconnecting people from the Internet as a form of punishment will soon be abandoned by governments around the world.

The full text of the report is available here.

  • Internet is a human right (incertumdelectant.wordpress.com)
  • Internet access a human right? (robbratby.com)
  • UK response to file-sharing is still in trouble — but should it be? (ipkitten.blogspot.com)
  • Is Disconnecting People From the Internet a Violation of Human Rights? [Lucas Wyrsch] (ecademy.com)
  • UN Declares Internet Access A Human Right, But Fast and Cheap May Be as Important as Open (singularityhub.com)
  • United Nations: Disconnecting People From the Internet Is a Violation of Human Rights (mashable.com)

India Develops A Navigation System Of Its Own

Published by pratyushkp on August 17th, 2010 - in Social, Technology

ISRO has developed a satellite-based navigation system to help aid air traffic from Southeast Asia to Africa.


Indian Space Research Organization has launched GAGAN or the GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation which will help the civil aviation sector as well as help in marine navigation, search and rescue operations, rail and road transport, survey and mapping as well as precision farming.

GAGAN is based on a constellation of 24 satellites positioned in six earth-centered orbital planes and will provide seamless coverage of air traffic from south Asia to Africa and connect to the systems of Europe and Japan. GAGAN is a joint initiative of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and was launched by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. According to officials this system will help in providing enhanced safety features for the airlines as they would be able to have precision approach guidance towards runways in any weather conditions.

At present only countries like the United States, European Union and Japan have such a system.

Tags: , Airports Authority of India, , GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation, , Indian Space Research Organisation, , navigation system, Southeast Asia,
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