Each AUA World Congress has convened in a different country to strengthen the relation between the AUA, the Assyrians and the government of that host country. The AUA World Congress has been held in the US, Europe, Australia, Iran and Iraq. The AUA had not been able to hold its World Congress in Iraq, the Assyrian homeland, until 2010 in Erbil as the aspirations of the Assyrian people were in direct conflict with the policies of the ruling Baath regime, which continuously denied Assyrians their national identity and status as the indigenous people of Iraq and persisted in its attempts to Arabize them.[4]