From digital transformation to digital exclusion: Iraq, global administrative law, and international human rights

Abstract

This article examines Iraq's digital transformation through the combined lenses of global administrative law and international human rights law. Digital governance is commonly presented as a pathway to administrative modernization, transparency, efficiency, and anti-corruption reform, yet it may also generate exclusion when public services become dependent on Internet connectivity, digital literacy, electronic identification, banking inclusion, or institutional trust. The article argues that Iraq's digital transformation should be evaluated not only as a technical or managerial reform, but as a legal-administrative process that reshapes the relationship between the state and citizens. Drawing on global administrative law, it assesses digital public authority through legality, transparency, participation, reasoned decision-making, proportionality, review, and accountability. Drawing on international human rights law, it examines how digital-only or digital-preferred public services may affect equality, non-discrimination, privacy, access to justice, participation, and effective remedy. Using Iraq as a contextual case, the article applies and operationalizes the right not to use the Internet as a derivative safeguard against digital coercion in public administration. It concludes by proposing a rights-based administrative model for Iraqi digital governance based on legality, transparency, participation, offline access, proportionality, privacy and data protection, and review and remedy.