Part VI Cross-Cutting Issues Human Rights, Development, and New Communication Technologies

This paper attempts to address the rather complex nexus between human rights, information and communication technologies (ICTs), and development. The topic I wish to explore in this paper is how to incorporate ICT use in development as a Human Rights issue. The paper first briefly examines how development in the Information Age must be considered an entirely different project from previous models of development. Core concepts such as diffusion, influence, and accumulation must be rethought. Secondly, in relation to Human Rights the paper argues that by placing ICTs under the right of ‘freedom to seek, receive, and impart information’ ignores the most pressing issue: that of polarization. Examining ICTs in the context of the right to share scientific benefits has the advantage of addressing polarization and inequality. Examples will be used from the region to demonstrate the role of ICTs in advocacy, and civil society development. However, one point his paper wishes to raise is that the introduction of new information freedoms and technologies does not always lead to participation and democracy