Global Information Society Watch 2016 Report
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GISW 10th Edition atch Economic, social and cultural rights 2016 2016 GLOBAL INFORMATION and the internet SOCIETY WATCH 2016 The 45 country reports gathered here illustrate the link between the internet and economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs). Some of the topics will be familiar to information and communications technology for development (ICT4D) activists: Economic, social and cultural rights ETY WATCH ETY WATCH I I the right to health, education and culture; the socioeconomic empowerment of women using the internet; the inclusion of rural and indigenous communities in and the internet the information society; and the use of ICT to combat the marginalisation of local languages. Others deal with relatively new areas of exploration, such as using 3D ON SOC ON SOC I I printing technology to preserve cultural heritage, creating participatory community networks to capture an “inventory of things” that enables socioeconomic rights, crowdfunding rights, or the negative impact of algorithms on calculating social benefits. Workers’ rights receive some attention, as does the use of the internet during natural disasters. Ten thematic reports frame the country reports. These deal both with overarching concerns when it comes to ESCRs and the internet – such as institutional frame- works and policy considerations – as well as more specific issues that impact on our rights: the legal justification for online education resources, the plight GLOBAL INFORMAT GLOBAL INFORMAT of migrant domestic workers, the use of digital databases to protect traditional knowledge from biopiracy, digital archiving, and the impact of multilateral trade deals on the international human rights framework. The reports highlight the institutional and country-level possibilities and chal- lenges that civil society faces in using the internet to enable ESCRs. They also suggest that in a number of instances, individuals, groups and communities are using the internet to enact their socioeconomic and cultural rights in the face of disinterest, inaction or censure by the state. GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY WATCH 2016 Report www.GISWatch.org International Development Research Centre Centre de recherches pour le développement international ASSOCIATION FOR PROGRESSIVE COMMUNICATIONS (APC) AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTRE (IDRC) Global Information Society Watch 2016 International Development Research Centre Centre de recherches pour le développement international Global Information Society Watch 2016 Economic, social and cultural rights and the internet Coordinating committee Anriette Esterhuysen (APC) Valeria Betancourt (APC) Flavia Fascendini (APC) Karen Banks (APC) Project coordinator Roxana Bassi (APC) Editor Alan Finlay Assistant editor, publication production Lori Nordstrom (APC) Proofreading Valerie Dee Lori Nordstrom Graphic design Monocromo [email protected] Phone: +598 2400 1685 Cover illustration Matías Bervejillo This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada, as part of the APC project “A rights based approach to internet policy and governance for the advancement of economic, social and cultural rights”. International Development Research Centre More information at: https://www.apc.org/en/projects/Centre de recherches pour le développement international internet-rights-are-economic-social-cultural-rights International Development Research Centre APC wouldCentre like de recherches to thank pour the le dSwedishéveloppement International international Development Coopera- tion Agency (Sida) for its support for Global Information Society Watch 2016. Published by APC and IDRC 2016 Printed in USA Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Some rights reserved. Global Information Society Watch 2016 web and e-book ISBN 978-92-95102-70-5 APC-201611-CIPP-R-EN-DIGITAL-260 NIGERIA Saving minority languages in Nigeria keywords: minorities, language, culture Fantsuam Foundation Internet access in Nigeria John Dada The provision of broadband infrastructure to create www.fantsuam.net an enabling environment for development can sup- port the implementation of ESCRs in many ways, Introduction including in the documentation, preservation and Fantsuam Foundation lives and works among mi- development of indigenous minority languages of nority ethnic groups in northern Nigeria. Nigeria Nigeria. By June 2016, Nigeria’s broadband penetra- 4 has over 500 languages1 with three local languag- tion was only 14%; but despite this low penetration, 5 es dominant: Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. This status there are about 93 million internet users in Nigeria. tends to confer some socio-political advantages on Therefore, the internet can have a positive effect on the native speakers of these languages. Some mi- meeting some of Nigeria’s ESCR obligations. nority languages are not yet in print, while some With an increasing interest in addressing the others are only found in religious books. Others are inequity in broadband penetration, civil society already near extinction. continues to play a significant role. This includes 6 A few years ago, Fantsuam Foundation started the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), which to document the minority languages of the south- brings together stakeholders from civil society and ern Kaduna communities of northern Nigeria. This the public and private sectors to promote afforda- was the first attempt at publishing these languages ble internet access. Nigeria’s civil society was also online. The project’s aim was to promote the rights in the team that crafted Nigeria’s broadband plan in 7 of people speaking minority languages to partici- 2013, with the goal of achieving 30% connectivity pate in cultural life as provisioned in Article 15 of by 2017. the International Covenant on Economic, Social and The level of internet access available to com- Cultural Rights (ICESCR).2 munities who speak marginalised languages is not 8 The issue of languages in education is also rele- reported on in Nigeria’s access statistics. However, vant in this context. For example, Shaver argues that if we consider the sizes of the population groups “every person has the right to education for literacy that speak endangered languages, and that many and the right to freely choose the reading material of these groups live in rural areas and cannot speak they prefer” and that this right is already implicit in English, we can guess that internet access is low. Up international law and derives its legitimacy in the to 400 minority Nigerian languages are considered 9 well-known rights such as education, science, cul- endangered, with 152 of them at risk of extinction. ture and freedom of expression.3 However, such a Basa-Kontagora had only 10 known speakers way right can hardly be exercised in the current digital back in 1987, while the number of speakers of the world if some languages are yet to be documented and digitised. This is the situation for many minority 4 Adepetun, A. (2016, 26 July). Nigeria’s broadband penetration languages in Nigeria. now 14%. The Guardian. guardian.ng/business-services/ nigerias-broadband-penetration-now-14 5 Nigerian Communications Commission. (2016). Monthly Subscriber Data. ncc.gov.ng/index. php?option=com_content&view=article&id=125&Itemid=73 6 Johnson, O. (2016, 22 July). Africa’s Future in a Connected World. Alliance for Affordable Internet. a4ai.org/ africas-future-in-a-connected-world 7 Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan 2013-2018. www. researchictafrica.net/countries/nigeria/Nigeria_National_ 1 Blench, R. (2012). An Atlas of Nigerian Languages. www. Broadband_Plan_2013-2018.pdf rogerblench.info/Language/Africa/Nigeria/Atlas%20of%20 8 Nigerian Communications Commission. (2016). Nigerian%20Languages%20ed%20III.pdf Subscriber Statistics. www.ncc.gov.ng/index. 2 www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CESCR.aspx php?option=com_content&view=article&id=125&Itemid=73 3 Shaver, L. (2015). The Right to Read. Columbia Journal of 9 NAN. (2014, 26 February). ‘More than 400 Nigerian indigenous Transnational Law, 54(1), 1-58. jtl.columbia.edu/the-right-to-read/ languages are endangered’. Vanguard. www.vanguardngr. ssrn.com/abstract=2467635 com/2014/02/400-nigerian-indigenous-languages-endangered 166 / Global Information Society Watch Labir language in the state of Bauchi has dropped education, etc.). The minority language speakers, in from over 13,000 speakers to just about 500.10 an attempt to promote their own careers and take While there is “consensus around the idea that part in the historical advantage and opportunities access to the internet allows or facilitates countless created for speakers of the major languages,16 often processes of expression and communication, thus have to migrate to the language of power, leading enabling the realisation of human rights,”11 whether their own language into disuse and sometimes or not access is a human right is still under debate. extinction.17 Nevertheless, its enabling role in supporting the However, the irony is that the younger genera- cultural rights of speakers of minority languages tion of the major language tribes are speaking less and thereby fostering inclusive governance and eq- of their mother tongues because their parents pre- uitable development is not in doubt. It is in this area fer to speak English in the house rather than the that the Nigerian government can place more em- native language.18 As a result of the country’s col- phasis, as