Abstract: In the digital era, a new situation where “biological literate” and “information literate” coexist has emerged, resulting in new “digital attributes” for the form of people’s existence. These attributes originate from the digital advancement of people’s social activities, i.e., creating social relationships, upholding personal dignity, and attaining personal fulfillment. These are all described, expressed, and constructed via information, data, and codes in the digital space, as well as the result of the digital evolution of its social attributes. The legal protection mechanism for human’s “digital attributes” includes two parts interconnected in both directions. The first part is to establish the legal rights form of digital human rights based on human’s “digital attributes” and to construct a dual-coexistence structure where traditional rights upgraded from human’s “digital attributes” and new rights created coexist; The second is to build a legal obligation system for digital human rights, consisting of obligations shared by each individual, tech enterprise, and country based on digital human rights.

 

Keywords: Social Attributes; Digital Attributes; Digital Human Rights; Legal Protection


*About the author: Gong Xianghe, executive dean of Institute of Human Rights, Southeast University, professor of Law School, Doctor of Laws.