Iraq has suffered from years of despotic regimes, conflict and systemic human rights violations. The crimes of the previous regime have been well documented. Sanctions in the 1990s and the policies of Saddam’s regime saw increasing poverty and deterioration in the access of many ordinary Iraqis to basic services – particularly among the non-empowered ethnic and religious communities. For the past ten years Iraq has been subject to war, occupation and armed violence and terrorism. Relations between diverse communities have been fractured and many see themselves as the victims of atrocities and violations committed by other groups. As a result trust between the various communities remains low. Throughout this time, Iraq’s ethnic and religious communities have suffered from direct attacks, killings, kidnappings, destruction of property and other acts of terrorism and violence from extremist religious based armed groups, particularly by what was known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq – the predecessor of ISIL. As their insecurity has increased, coupled with lack of economic opportunity and lack of access to basic services, large numbers of minority communities in Iraq have relocated within the country or have emigrated permanently. The institutions of the State remain weak – and their lack of capacity to coordinate access to basic services has meant unequal access to those services by various communities within Iraq, particularly for the ethnic and religious communities located in the areas between the Kurdistan region of Iraq and the rest of the country. There is high unemployment among youth in Iraq. There is a generation of young people who have missed out on basic education and who lack basic kills. Some sectors of the community have felt increasingly alienated from the political processes – believing that democratic institutions have failed to address their grievances. There is also the conflict in Syria, which has provided fertile ground for extremist groups to arm and train and from where they could relaunch their activities in Iraq. Many of these factors were indicators of a potential deterioration that could lead to atrocity crimes. Close monitoring and early warning mechanisms are critical to alerting not only the Government but also the international community so that corrective or remedial actions can be