Iraq has experienced a turbulent history during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, during which the country has witnessed invasions, military occupations, independence, violent regime changes, war, genocide, and gross human rights violations. Iraq's record on human rights abuses, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide during this period has been among the most abysmal throughout the Arab world and the regions of southwest Asia. This was true especially after the seizure of power by the Ba'th Party in 1968, and the subsequent totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein from 1979 to 2003. The significance of this fact looms large not only for Middle Eastern history but for global history as well.

Ba'th Party Rule

Most of the gross violations of human rights and dignity committed in modern Iraq were perpetrated when the Arab Socialist Renaissance...