Merten Reglitz proposes a new human right that ensures internet access for those who cannot afford it and protects that right from arbitrary interferences by those who would exploit it for harm. The first part of the book justifies the claim for this new right by showing how internet access is vital for the enjoyment of human rights around the globe. In the second part, Reglitz specifies the content of this right, assessing today’s standard threats to internet access. He recommends a minimum international standard of connectivity and explains how states have misused the internet. He documents how private companies already manipulate both internet access and content to maximise profit, and how lack of rights enforcement allows people to harm others online. The book establishes that a new human right to free internet access is essential to secure its role for the benefit and progress, not detriment, of humanity.

The chapter determines one set of obligations of the human right to internet access using the idea of rights as social guarantees against standard threats. These obligations regard duties of provision to protect against digital poverty. The chapter first provides the statistical background on the global digital divide. Digital poverty has several causes. People lack financial means to afford (1) digital devices and (2) data services. (3) Digital infrastructure is missing especially in the poorest and most remote regions. Hundreds of millions of people everywhere lack (4) basic digital skills. The chapter sets out a global standard concerning all four dimensions of connectivity that public authorities must guarantee. It thereby specifies the first meaning of ‘free’ internet access as ‘free for those unable to afford it’. It also distinguishes between the general content and minimal core obligations of the human right to free internet access. Minimal core obligations are those all states currently can and must fulfil. The general content specifies the full set of duties that states must progressively realise if they are currently unable to do so.

Economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights include a number of entitlements, such as the right to work and the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work; the right to form and join trade unions; the right to social security; the protection of the family, mothers and children; the right to an adequate standard of living, which includes adequate food, clothing and housing and continuous improvement of living conditions; the right to the highest attainable standard of mental health; the right to education; and the right to participate in cultural life and enjoy the benefits of scientific progress. All these are protected under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

This chapter tackles the challenge of characterizing those rights that constitute socio-economic rights. It offers a brief consideration of this catalogue/generation by assessing the rights to adequate standard of living, housing, food, water and sanitation, and clothing. After distilling the main idea of the specific right, illustrations are set forth. In this area, the tendency of states to deny they have resources necessary to guarantee these rights has largely undermined the progressive development of this set of rights.

The sixth chapter applies the analytical framework for due diligence obligations to the field of human rights protection. The individual components of due diligence obligations are analyzed with regard to the specific risks and problems of human rights law. It addresses how knowledge of human rights risks can be established, how resource constraints alter human rights obligations in times of conflict and economic recession, and what reasonable measures of protection are required. Conclusions from the previous chapter are consulted in order to decide whether due diligence concepts and methods developed in other fields of international law might be fruitfully applied to the area of human rights protection. When analyzing the application of human rights due diligence obligations though, the chapter will also reveal that the implementation of such obligations is often hampered where states lack sufficient capacities to effectively regulate and control harmful non-state conduct.

Complaints procedures offer a unique opportunity for individuals and groups to have claims of human rights violations considered and their rights vindicated in a judicial or quasi-judicial procedure. For non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and human rights lawyers, complaints procedures are an important avenue to pursue strategic objectives, in addition to supporting victims in individual cases. States, on the other hand, may find themselves having to defend allegations of specific or systemic violations. Ideally, complaints procedures act as a mirror that provides an opportunity for states to bring their practices into conformity with the respective treaty. In practice, however, states often view unfavourable decisions as unwarranted criticism, which may create difficulties at the implementation stage. The treaty bodies themselves are in theory neutral arbiters that apply the treaty provisions and rules of procedures. However, inevitably, their position as bodies created by states, and relying on states’ cooperation on the one hand and seeking the effective protection of human rights on the other, raises a host of challenges in actual practice.