VOlUME 04 ISSUE 12 DECEMBER 2021
Olusegun Femi Akeredolu.
B.A, LL.B, BL, LL.M, AICMC, Doctorate Student, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State.
State Counsel, Department of Civil Litigation, Ondo State Ministry of Justice, Alagbaka, Akure, Ondo State.
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ABSTRACT
One of the lessons taught by the Covid 19 epidemic experience is that the world physical streets, schools, markets, places of worship and other environments for human physical interactions could self-shutdown for months in order for man to preserve its existence. As the physical world was, literarily speaking, systematically shutting down in the year 2020, due to the rapid spreading of Covid 19, the digital world was gaining momentum, more citizens and expanding its usefulness and usage. Online streets where people could meet and interest were enlarged, many schools were opened in the digital world, markets became common feature online, places of worship became normal and meetings of all kind were held online, courts proceedings, movies premiere, dating, training… life simply moved into the digital world. This actuality unlined the importance of access to internet (as the door to the digital world) and instigated this article. This library-based research examines, in the main, the correlations between the basic human rights and right of access to the digital world via the internet. The study also suggests that right of access internet access encompasses the fundamental rights of freedom information, freedom of association and other basic human rights that are constitutionally protected by domestic laws of nations. The study also takes a peep at concept tagged as Internet of things (IoT), supports the debate that digital right is a distinct right that needs specific protection and argues that digital right enjoyment and enforcement are not limited to natural persons alone. The study concludes by emphasising the need to design international legal regime that will internationally protect the all-importance digital right of citizens from domestic interference by municipal authorities of nation states.
KEYWORDS:Advocacy, Digital Right, Internet, Internet of Things, Digital Citizen, Digital Space, Telecom
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