Before the question of whether or not there ought to be a formal Convention on the right can be answered, a great deal of careful preparatory work will need to be done. The guidelines for developing a convention specify a number of steps that need to be taken. These same guidelines can also help focus other activities including research and education.
These notes locate the Convention among UN instruments, discuss the conditions to be met by such an instrument and the necessary steps to be taken. These notes conclude with a question: under what conditions, if any, might a Convention on the Right to Communicate be achieved.
For those whose interest in the right to communicate is grounded in the communication field itself, the terminology surrounding human rights instruments may be unfamiliar. The entries here can help reduce uncertainty.
From time to time, new conventions are drafted, adopted and ratiified. An examination of a small number of Conventions in process can illuminate the pathway toward a right to communicate convention.
As envisioned here, a Convention on the right to communicate will have two main parts: a clear description that leads to a common understanding of the right; and, a formal definition that can be embodied in a binding convention of the right. Description prepares for definition.