HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT: NORMATIVE APPLICABILITY AND INSTITUTIONAL ENFORCEABILITY

The article proposes an original model for the protection of human rights in the digital environment based on the distinction between normative applicability and institutional enforceability. It argues that digitalization neither displaces existing international human rights guarantees nor, by itself, requires an autonomous catalogue of «digital rights». The principal protection deficit lies not in the absence of applicable norms, but in a break within the institutional chain connecting a recognized guarantee to the actual restoration of the individual’s position. Overcoming this break requires an identifiable jurisdictional link, notice, access to a procedure and evidence, meaningful participation, independent review, an adequate outcome and its technical implementation. The state remains the principal addressee of international legal obligations, while platforms and other private intermediaries operate as factual infrastructural nodes capable of causing, recording and remedying digital harm. Corporate grievance mechanisms may provide rapid practical correction, but cannot replace a publicly guaranteed effective remedy. The article therefore formulates a fiveelement model combining an applicable international legal norm, an institutionally connected chain of protection, the coordinating role of the state, the infrastructural function of private intermediaries and the operational value of soft law. It concludes that the protective force of human rights in the digital environment depends not only on normative recognition, but also on the legal system’s capacity to translate a decision into a verifiable change in the relevant digital condition.