Information Society Watch

William J. McIver, Jr., William F. Birdsall, and Merrilee Rasmussen

The traditional understanding of human rights faces several challenges with the development of the Internet. There is a very urgent and specific need to address information rights within a comprehensive human rights framework, specifically a right to communicate. This paper examines the development of a right to communicate and how it can be defined and implemented. The article contends that the forces of worldwide expansion of human rights and the development of global communications systems present an opportunity to advance communication rights, particularly the right to communicate. To achieve a right to communicate there must be inclusive, grassroots national movements; and there is an urgent need for a legislative soft law strategy based on communicative law that draws upon the resources of the Internet.

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