Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
WiFi and Other Inalienable Human Rights
WiFi and Other Inalienable Human Rights
Jan 27, 2026 2:24 PM

When you think about basic human rights, what is the first thing es to mind? The right to life? The right to liberty? The right to WiFi?

If that last one wasn’t on your list it may be a sign that you’re old. As Maryland governor Martin O’Malley recently told CNN, young people today believe that “WiFi is a human right.” O’Malley apparently agrees, adding that, “There is an opportunity there for us as a nation to embrace that new perspective.”

While I’ll concede that WiFi may be a basic human need (it’s certainly on the list of my own hierarchy of needs), it’s hard to see why it would be a human right. A human right is generally considered a right that is inalienable and fundamental and to which a person is inherently entitled simply because they are a human being. Are we really entitled to WiFi simply because we’re human?

While it’s easy to mock O’Malley’s claim, it does raise the question of just what exactly does qualify as a human right.

In a world where few people can agree on anything, it’s not surprising that there is no clear consensus on what constitutes a human right. About the closest the world has e to unanimity on the issue is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.

Below I’ve individually broken out each of the rights listed by the UN as fundamental to all humanity. Before looking at the list, though, take a guess at how many of rights you expect to see on the list.

According to the UDHR, all humans have the right,

To life.To liberty.To security of person.To be free from slavery.To be free from involuntary servitude.To be free from torture.To be free from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.To recognition everywhere as a person before the law.To equal protection of the law.To an effective remedy by petent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.To not be subject to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile.To a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.To be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which one has had all the guarantees necessary for one’s defense.To be free from arbitrary interference with one’s privacy, family, home, or correspondence.To be free from attacks upon one’s honor and reputation.To the protection of the law against such interference or attacks upon’s one’s privacy, honor, or reputation.To freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.To leave any country, including one’s own.To return to one’s country.To seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.To a nationality.To change one’s nationality.To marryTo found a family.To free and full consent in choosing one’s spouse.To own property alone as well as in association with others.To be free from being arbitrarily deprived of one’s property.To freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.To change one’s religion or belief.To manifest, either alone or munity with others and in public or private, one’s religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.To freedom of opinion and expression.To seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media.To freedom of peaceful assembly and association.To be free pulsion to belong to an association.To take part in the government of one’s country.To equal access of public services in one’s country.To a secure society.To work.To free choice of employment.To just and favorable conditions of work.To protection against unemployment.To equal pay for equal work.To just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and one’s family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.To form and to join trade unions for the protection of one’s interests.To rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.To a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of one’s family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, and necessary social services.To security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond one’s control.To free elementary education.To equal access of higher education based on merit.To choose the kind of education that shall be given to one’s children.To participate in the cultural life of munity.To enjoy the arts.To share in scientific advancement and its benefits.To the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary, or artistic production of which he is the author.To a social and international order in which human rights and freedoms can be fully realized.

Are there any rights you think shouldn’t have been included? And what inalienable rights — other than WiFi — do you think are missing from the list?

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on James 3:1-12   (Read James 3:1-12)   We are taught to dread an unruly tongue, as one of the greatest evils. The affairs of mankind are thrown into confusion by the tongues of men. Every age of the world, and every condition of life, private or public, affords examples of this. Hell has more to do...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Chapter Contents   The safety of the godly.   We must not rely upon men and means, instruments and second causes. Shall I depend upon the strength of the hills? upon princes and great men? No; my confidence is in God only. Or, we must lift up our eyes above the hills; we must look to God who...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on John 14:1-11   (Read John 14:1-11)   Here are three words, upon any of which stress may be laid. Upon the word troubled. Be not cast down and disquieted. The word heart. Let your heart be kept with full trust in God. The word your. However others are overwhelmed with the sorrows of this present time,...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on John 16:28-33   (Read John 16:28-33)   Here is a plain declaration of Christ's coming from the Father, and his return to him. The Redeemer, in his entrance, was God manifest in the flesh, and in his departure was received up into glory. By this saying the disciples improved in knowledge. Also in faith; Now are...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Psalm 27:1-6   (Read Psalm 27:1-6)   The Lord, who is the believer's light, is the strength of his life; not only by whom, but in whom he lives and moves. In God let us strengthen ourselves. The gracious presence of God, his power, his promise, his readiness to hear prayer, the witness of his Spirit...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Isaiah 42:5-12   (Read Isaiah 42:5-12)   The work of redemption brings back man to the obedience he owes to God as his Maker. Christ is the light of the world. And by his grace he opens the understandings Satan has blinded, and sets at liberty from the bondage of sin. The Lord has supported his...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Psalm 119:9-16   (Read Psalm 119:9-16)   To original corruption all have added actual sin. The ruin of the young is either living by no rule at all, or choosing false rules: let them walk by Scripture rules. To doubt of our own wisdom and strength, and to depend upon God, proves the purpose of holiness...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Proverbs 16:25   (Read Proverbs 16:25)   This is caution to all, to take heed of deceiving themselves as to their souls.   Proverbs 16:25 In-Context   23 The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent, and their lips promote instruction.Or prudent / and make their lips persuasive   24 Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on 1 John 4:1-6   (Read 1 John 4:1-6)   Christians who are well acquainted with the Scriptures, may, in humble dependence on Divine teaching, discern those who set forth doctrines according to the apostles, and those who contradict them. The sum of revealed religion is in the doctrine concerning Christ, his person and office. The false...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Today's Verse   Commentary on Deuteronomy 6:4-5   (Read Deuteronomy 6:4-5)   Here is a brief summary of religion, containing the first principles of faith and obedience. Jehovah our God is the only living and true God; he only is God, and he is but One God. Let us not desire to have any other. The three-fold mention of the Divine...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved