Internet shutdown: Governmental action, communication breach and International Human Rights

This article deconstructs why governments shut down the internet in some parts and communities within their states for stated, and sometimes, no stated reasons. Using a doctrinal methodology the research question raised for the study is whether internet shutdown by any government, for whatsoever reasons, is not a governmental breach of internationally recognised human rights? One of the major findings of this work is that it is generally accepted that the right of access to the internet is an emerging right recognised by the international human right (soft law). It is as well recognised that the right is a special right, a standalone right without class, not because it is digital (soft) in outlook, intangible in effects and borderless in nature, but because it is accessory in nature. It is also established that digital right is an accessory right that makes the enjoyment of human rights possible. The study concludes that shutdown access to the internet shutdown may be legal provided the shutdown is moral and reasonable. It recommends that the dynamics of lawmaking should be geared towards enacting enabling laws and regulations that protect access to internet. The provision for derogation to these laws should be clear without ambiguity or obfuscation.