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In this book, a number of scholars, human rights activists and practitioners examine the links between information and communication technology (ICT) and human rights, exploring the ways in which the information society can either advance human rights around the world or threaten them. This includes issues such as freedom of expression, access to information, privacy, discrimination, freedom of assembly, political participation, gender equality, minority rights, and intellectual property. The introduction of this book examines how human rights were dealt with within this global ICT policy process. The information revolution is changing the nature of global politics in important ways. The social structuring and utilisation of information and communication technology (ICT) is raising new and difficult policy issues, altering the character of power resources and relationships, increasing the influence of non-state actors, and unleashing transnational pressures that challenge the authority of governmental institutions at the national, regional, and global levels. While social scientists and policy analysts have taken important strides toward understanding these and related trends, more will be needed if we are to achieve a cumulative and substantial body of knowledge. To contribute to that task, this new series explores the interplay of the information revolution and global politics. It is particularly concerned with the ways in which social power shapes the design and control of technologies and, conversely, how those technologies affect wider power dynamics beyond the boundaries of the ICT sector. These dual analytical concerns are addressed in three thematic arenas: National ICT Policies, with special attention to the challenges facing developing countries in the transition to globalisation and market liberalisation; The Global Governance of ICT, including the political economy of both traditional intergovernmental regimes and organisations and emerging "self-governance" arrangements and policy networks for telecommunications, the Internet, and information; and International Relations and Digital Diplomacy, including the information revolution's impact on the structures, actors, and power dynamics that shape world affairs, and on the conduct of foreign policy, international security, and international economic policies. The series features volumes that bridge the gaps that often have hindered analytical and policy progress in this arena, i.e. between different academic disciplines, between scholars and policy practitioners (in government, business, and civil society), and between North American and international perspectives. It examines the ways in which ICTs are embedded in and impact social institutions and relationships; as such, purely technical studies are not included. While theoretical concerns are explored, the series gives particular emphasis to studies that will be of interest to both scholars and diverse policy-oriented audiences.