If one were to extrapolate the argument against the Youtube ban in Pakistan to the rest of South Asia, one would see a panacea of constitutional fundamental rights in South Asia that are directly related to net access and freedom in the modern world. The following is a list of rights from each nation that are enumerated in their respective constitutions:
Further, most South Asian states are signatories to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which is being increasingly being relied upon to protect internet rights. Article 17 of the ICCPR protects all humans from being subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy or correspondence. A coalition of states led by Germany have called for the international treaty to be modified to include electronic correspondence.[17] The International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners attended by countries including Uruguay, Australia, and Germany all overwhelming supported a resolution to update Article 17 to protect net privacy and access rights.
Secondly, there have been calls to modernize Article 19 of the ICCPR, which protects the right to freedom of expression. The UN Human Rights Committee adopted General Comment 34, which sought to offer an interpretation of Article 19 that protected internet rights as a means to ensure freedom of expression. The Comment asks all countries to protect new forms of media with the same protections offered under freedom of press or expression, extending these rights to the “operation of websites, blogs or other internet-based, or other information dissemination system(s).”[18]
In response to increasing limitations on internet rights, activists and lawyers have joined forces to launch litigation to challenge the state’s censorship and surveillance policies. In India, the abovementioned anti-terrorism law was successfully challenged by lawyers and law professors in the case of a terrorism conviction for a professor alleged to be involved in the 2001 attacks on Indian Parliament.[15]
In a similar vein, NGOs like Bytes4All and the Digital Rights Foundation have challenged the Youtube ban in Pakistan.[16] Lawyers have argued before Pakistani courts that while the internet may not be mentioned in Pakistan’s constitution, it is a modern modality that deserves to be valued as underlying citizens’ access to exercise their fundamental rights to information, education, free speech, and free association.
Challenging Litigation
Constitutional and International Rights
Country
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
Bhutan
India
Maldives
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Constitutional Fundamental Rights
Freedom of expression is inviolable right: includes right to expression, thought through speech, publish topics freely, confidentiality and freedom of correspondence without government intrusion.
Freedom of association, thought, conscience, speech, and protection of correspondence from government intrusion.
Right to liberty and information, freedom of speech, opinion, expression, conscience, thought, electronic forms of press, privacy of correspondence.
Freedom of thought, expression, acquiring/imparting of knowledge, free press/media, and Privacy.
Right to free speech, expression, free conscience, education, personal liberty..
Freedom of thought, consciences, speech, assembly and association.
Information, Free Press, Free Speech, Free Association, and Privacy.
Freedom of thought, consciences, speech, assembly and association.
International Rights