Digital human rights: International-legal and social dimensions

Abstract

The article considers digital human rights as a relatively new social-legal phenomenon which has recently become the focus of scientific discussions. Some scientists believe that digital rights have specific determinants which explain their character of sui generis , i.e., digital rights represent a new - fourth - generation of human rights. The author considers digital rights in their international-legal and social dimensions in order to clarify their nature and definitions, and argues that the scientific-expert community lacks a single understanding of digital rights; therefore, such rights should be named information-digital, which would reflect their information nature as a construct of reality (including virtual reality). The social dimension of digital rights is manifested in the unprecedented impact of the digitalization of social relations, which penetrates all spheres of contemporary society, determines various ethical and legal problems and becomes an issue of such philosophical concepts as transhumanism. In particular, transhumanism, supported by some leaders of the developed countries, implies negative consequences and challenges for traditional human rights since it insists on the transformation of human nature. The internationallegal dimension of digital law is expressed in the symbolic connection between ‘traditional’ and digital rights. When interpreting digital rights as information-digital, there are no differences between the above-mentioned types of rights, since they form an organic whole. Digital rights are a new type of the ‘traditional’ information rights, the provision and protection of which are sufficiently regulated (set) by the norms of the so-called Bill of Rights that includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the International Covenants on Human Rights (1966). Certainly, for new types of digital rights, it is necessary to develop additional protocols for the International Treaties. However, already now we need to seriously consider the implementation mechanism for digital rights, for instance, such as specialized groups of experts (lawyers and specialists in digital technologies) in the UN. The author proposes to develop an International Information-Digital Code of Rights in order to ensure a comprehensive regulation of digital human rights and freedoms.