Aspirations vs Reality: Internet access as a human right

Earlier this year (2011) the UN, mindful of the powerful role played by communications in fostering development in impoverished countries declared the ability to access the internet a basic human right. Now, Jean Fitzpatrick once called the UN Declaration of Human Rights 'a letter to Santa Claus'; establishing as it did as universal rights things like enough food, shelter and proper sanitation - something more than fifty years down the line we're still nowhere near to sorting out. But isn't it as well to have these things established in an aspirational sense then not to have anything said about them at all?

I mean look at the difficulties of implementation that are being faced; we don't have an international community that pulls together in the first place - I was only reminded of this again last night as I was watching the OPEC ministers try to hammer out agreeable production quotas and the familiar blocs were forming against the Western allied Sauds; Venezuela and Iran again pitching for lower quotas (which is a good thing in the long term bearing in mind climate change and peak oil!).

But these patterns are repeated in UN Security Council resolutions with China and Russia often taking a line contrary to the wishes of Britain, France and the US - I'm not saying they shouldn't, I'm only saying there are well established cleavages in place and these divisions taper their way down throughout the whole UN structure such that by the time priorities and budgets are being allocated to handling a mess like the aspirations of UNDR via the Millenium Goals the necessary coherence can't be found.

Also, it's as well to remember that it's not as if all the immiseration and poverty in the world is localised in a single area or is the result of uniform circumstances and is thus susceptible to some kind of magic wand; it is instead distributed heterogeneously and within vastly different regional circumstances even if it is concentrated most obviously in sub-Saharan Africa and south east Asia.

So, there are positive forces in play which are actively seeking to realise the rights laid down initially through the UN structures in the form of declarations and 'goals' just as there are myriad forces in play which, at a level as fundamental as that of the Security Council itself, dilutes the very effectiveness of these aims.

But there is no reason on earth why tacking on internet access as a basic human right should contradict, impede or slow down any of the pre-existing "rights" - the spread of mobile masts and cell-phone connectivity is an example of a technology, though led by the private sector, rapidly changed conditions for the most remote regions actually improving things such as health services and so on or giving small farmers access to market data (a big deal when you've only got a single crop to sell for the harvest and prices can fluctuate 20-30% in a single day).

So, while the aspiration may not be achievable in the short term it's certainly necessary to get our fingers out and make positive declarations of intent even if we are at present incapable of realising them.