New Challenges Posed by the Rise in Digital Technologies

The rise of digital technologies poses a number of novel challenges for human rights protection. After providing an overview of the meaning of digital rights in Module 2, this course covers some of the most pressing issues in promoting human rights protection in the digital age:

• What obligations do states have in respect of ensuring access to the internet and guaranteeing ‘net neutrality’? (Module 3)
• What are the international standards regarding privacy and data protection and what is meant by the ‘right to be forgotten’? (Module 4)
• How should the law of defamation be applied to digital communications? (Module 5)
• What are the international standards on regulating hate speech and what challenges does the rapid spread of information on social media platforms pose for this issue? (Module 6)
• What human rights challenges have accompanied the growth of cybercrimes and the often heavy-handed reaction of governments to this problem (Module 7)
• How should the issue of misinformation and disinformation be addressed in a rights-compliant way? (Module 8)
• To what extent is it legitimate to restriction freedom of expression so as to protect national security? (Module 9)
• What are the international standards on the protection of journalists and what novel challenges exist for them in the digital age (Module 10)
• What recourse do United Nations mechanisms provide for state abuses of human rights? (Module 11)