Our perspective

All tech experts declare with certainty that our future will be wireless. It will prevail because it’s less expensive, it’s more flexible and it’s so much easier to install and operate. A lot has happened since the first computer appeared and the only “security measures” that had to be taken were related to the physical location where the computer and its user were situated. Our society becomes more digital, wireless and will continue to do so in the years ahead.

Connectivity is a human right not a privilege
Connectivity and access to this digital society is a human right and should be a right for everyone, not a privilege. We believe that everyone has an equal right to access and use a secure and open Internet.

There are great challenges ahead. As the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Mr. Frank La Rue notes, inadequate and non-existent legal frameworks “create a fertile ground for arbitrary and unlawful infringements of the right to privacy in communications and, consequently, also threaten the protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression”.

Defending the eCitizen
Gov2u has in all its actions aimed to bring the citizen –the eCitizen!- into center-stage. We are now going a step further, to meet the needs of the grown-up internet: to support, defend and communicate the online human rights in this age of internet; the rights for privacy and freedom of expression.

We operate with the conviction that everyone has the right to privacy online. This includes the right to online anonymity and freedom from surveillance & governmental snooping. All citizens also have the right to data protection, including control over personal data collection, processing, disposal and disclosure.

In this internet-driven era, we all innovate as we go. Gov2u strongly believes that there is the need now more than ever before to create real digital citizens! It is now the time to teach children about the democracy of the internet. Online human rights are neither self-explanatory nor adequately protected.

In our current and future initiatives, we want to press for the formation of counter-balancing powers at European Union level. We also assert our commitment to a Europe-wide civic movement. Human rights are not dependent on governments alone, since their upholding and safeguard ultimately lie with individual citizens. It is dependent on each of us, as well as on all other civic groupings that share our cause, to assert our demands for effective civic franchise. We are convinced that Europe’s civic and social future is crucially dependent on such a commitment.

We endorse that:

Information of all kinds should be more free for more people
There should be limits to what governments, not just in Europe but anywhere, should get to scrutinize and regulate about our lives
Information exists sometimes only for two people and sometimes for the whole world and there should be a clear separation amongst these two types

Our role in the act
The Internet offers unprecedented opportunities for the realization of human rights, and plays an increasingly important role in our everyday lives. It is therefore essential that all actors, both public and private, respect and protect human rights on the Internet. Steps must also be taken to ensure that the Internet operates and evolves in ways that fulfill human rights to the greatest extent possible.

Gov2u will act on the premise that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression.