Growing cyber threats have led to increasingly restrictive policies that threaten human rights in the name of national security. Simultaneously, unequal internet access, insecure use and the lack of ownership over online information undermine social cohesion and resilience.
In the absence of global standards and norms, our ability to encourage responsible state behaviour in cyberspace is key to our national security.
The digital sphere is a space where human rights, data and information security intersect. It enables the right to education, freedom of expression and freedom of association. But many policies, practices and strategies limit the extent to which the digital sphere can be used as a vehicle for the exercise of civil, political and social rights.
For example, unequal access to the internet can infringe on the right to essential services during a political or environmental crisis. Surveillance technologies can infringe on the right to security by enabling the tracking of journalists and dissidents. The use of metadata for targeting news feeds can infringe on the freedom from cruelty by spreading extreme views.
This connection between human rights in cyberspace, social cohesion and resilience means that treating human rights as inherently at odds with national security is misguided and counterproductive.
Cybersecurity is an online extension of our offline human rights. Removing the trade-off between national security and human rights by accelerating a safe and inclusive digital sphere will create more resilient and cohesive digitally engaged communities.
Re-imagining our cybersecurity using a human-rights based approach is a good option. This approach places people at its heart and treats equal access, secure use and ownership of cyberspace as foundational to state security.
This approach broadens the traditional cybersecurity scope that is focussed on networks, data and information defence. But it would also remove the trade-off between national security and human rights. It would reinforce the principle that the full, equal and meaningful enjoyment of human rights sets the necessary conditions for state security.
A practical starting point for implementing this approach would be to reframe and realign Australia’s anti-discrimination legislation to better deal with online discrimination. We could also use this framework to reevaluate and repurpose legislation around privacy, freedom of expression and surveillance.
A review of this kind would need to consider potential changes to how legislation defines private and public life. Of course, national security risks and threats cannot, and should not, be ignored. But nor should it dismiss the government’s obligation to uphold the human rights of its citizens.
Harmonising national security law with human rights obligations could also open opportunities to regulate adherence by domestic and international companies. In the same way that we enable security through arms regulation, digital security could better enable the exercise of human rights.
Australia already regulates international companies in cyberspace through the News Media Bargaining Code. Similarly, we could impose stricter regulations around data collection, retention and use, and the use, sale and purchase of surveillance technologies. Demonstrating we were serious would require more than a slap on the wrist for non-compliance.
The cybersecurity of Pacific Island states is inherently connected to our national security. A human rights-based approach would reinforce that it is Australia they should look to to secure their digital rights. Tuvalu is already digitally recreating itself to protect the nation’s political, economic and cultural rights as climate change threatens its territorial existence. Enabling diasporas to maintain language, culture and traditions would loudly signal our commitment to digital human rights in the Pacific.
Securing digital human rights needs more than standards around internet use and ownership. We would also need to better enable equal internet access. This would reduce vulnerabilities and allow individuals and communities to more quickly bounce back from a crisis.
One option to bridge this ‘digital divide’ would be a National Device Bank like the one developed by the Good Things Foundation. This would involve a mobile device recycling campaign to collect and refurbish devices. We could then re-distribute them to struggling communities along with low or no-cost sims and services.
Australia could also leverage its telecommunications partnerships to roll out a similar initiative in the Pacific. Despite substantial mobile coverage, high electricity rates, the affordability of devices and services, and other socio-economic issues mean a low rate of mobile usage.
The disparity between mobile coverage and mobile usage has meant that portions of the population are falling increasingly behind in areas such as education and health. An initiative that supports local start-ups and investment in network stability could form part of an industry incentive package to meet digital human rights obligations.
There currently exists a lack of coordination and consistency on cybersecurity across Australian government agencies and non-government institutions. We would need a multi-stakeholder approach that brings together government, technologists, industry and legal, human rights and national security experts.
Bringing together the relevant knowledge and skills would allow us to map the issues, institutions and processes that comprise the cyber sphere. We could then develop a comprehensive strategy that integrates national security and human rights. We could seek to validate this approach through the European Convention on Cybercrime and leverage this validation to call on states to safeguard these rights in the global commons.
In an environment of geopolitical competition, we increasingly differentiate between national security and the struggle for human rights. But the two are closely linked.
Improving state behaviour in cyberspace is in the national interest. We must either remedy the digital disparities and divisions or place our social cohesion and resilience at risk. Cybersecurity is inextricably linked to human rights, and without human rights we can’t set the necessary conditions for state security.
