Human Rights in Iraq

 Hello everyone, welcome back to the Middle East and North African human rights blog. This week we will be looking into the history and human rights conditions of the Republic of Iraq. This blog will be split into two parts to focus on the Iraq War in 2003 in part 2.

Iraq, like Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, was under the control of European power due to the Sykes-Picot agreement. Iraq was under the control of the British Empire as a mandate in the context of the fall of the Ottoman Empire. In the early 20th century Iraq was faced with conflict between the British supported Hashemite kingdom and the Nationalist Movement which sought the independence and sovereignty of Iraq from the British (Kandell). During the second World War, both the Axis and Allied powers sought to gain influence and control of Iraq and its resources. This led to the intervention by the English and their colonial armies to overthrow a pro Axis government supported by Germany and Italy. After WWII, Iraq joined the Arab League and the United Nations and participated in the Israeli-Arab War in 1948. A decade later in 1958, the Monarchy in Iraq was overthrown in a military coup led by Abd al-Karim Qasim (Kandell). However Qasim’s rule would be short due to the Ba’athist coup led by Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr. Bakr became prime minister and later president of Iraq. During the 60s and 70s, Kurdistan in the north was striving for independence in an insurgency led by Mustafa Barzani (Voller). This led to two wars between the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi Army along with agreements for autonomy for Kurdistan ultimately being respected by Iraq. In the late 70s, Bakr’s vice president, Saddam Hussein continued to consolidate power until Saddam took power by forcing Bakr out of power with support from the Iraqi military (Kandell). Human rights conditions under Bakr and Saddam Hussein deteriorated significantly. Atrocities committed by Saddam include his “Arabization” campaign which included the killing, displacement, and destruction of Kurdish, Assyrian, Turkmen, Yazidi, and Shabak communities (Voller). Almost immediately after coming to power, Saddam Hussein’s regime launched an invasion of neighboring Iran. Iraq’s war effort included the use of chemical weapons against civilian and military targets (Editors). The war also intensified the oppression of ethnic minorities such as Kurds which culminated in the Anfal Campaign which was a genocide against the Kurdish population which killed 100,000 to 200,000 civilians (Voller). Along with the genocide of the Kurdish population in the north, Saddam’s regime also committed massacres against the Shia population in the south. After neither Iraq or Iran made any military gains, the war ended in 1988 with hundreds of thousands dead and many more displaced and injured (Editors). Three years later Saddam invaded Kuwait and attracted the opposition of an international coalition led by its once ally, the United States. In the aftermath of a resounding defeat for Iraq in the Gulf War, Iraq became internationally isolated. Saddam again committed massacres, particularly against Kurds and Shias, to put down an uprising in the aftermath of the Gulf War (Zenko). North and south Iraq were later under no-fly zones implemented by the US which gave Kurds the ability to exercise self government in what is now the Kurdish Regional Government. In the 1990s, Iraq was under tight economic sanctions and facing accusations of trying to construct weapons of mass destruction which led to airstrikes by the US (Zenko). Human rights during the 1990s were terrible due to the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein and a complete killing and arrest of any political opposition in the aftermath of the uprisings. Human rights in Iraq during the early 20th century were characterized by occupation, war, killing and repression of political opposition, and authoritarianism. In the later 20th century, human rights conditions were shaped by mass murder, genocide, totalitarianism, war crimes, along with a racist and expansionist agenda exacerbated by the government of Saddam Hussein. The abuses of Saddam’s government would continue until the invasion of the US led coalition in 2003. The issue of human rights in post-invasion Iraq will be discussed in part two.

Citations:

Zenko, Micah. “Remembering the Iraqi Uprising Twenty-Five Years Ago.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/blog/remembering-iraqi-uprising-twenty-five-years-ago. 

Editors, History.com. “Iran-Iraq War.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Nov. 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/iran-iraq-war. 

Voller, Yaniv. “Identity and the Ba‘Th Regime’s Campaign against Kurdish Rebels in Northern Iraq.” Middle East Journal, vol. 71, no. 3, 2017, pp. 383–401. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/90016470. Accessed 19 Nov. 2022.

Kandell, Jonathan. “Iraq's Unruly Century.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 May 2003, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/iraqs-unruly-century-82706606/.