MIP holds workshop for history teachers in Zenica

On 10 June 2023, the Mechanism Information Programme for Affected Communities (MIP) held a workshop on the use of the archives of the ICTY and the Mechanism for 20 history teachers from across the Zenica-Doboj canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The event was held in Zenica and organised in cooperation with the European Association of History Educators (EUROCLIO) and the Zenica Pedagogical Institute. The aim of the workshop was to train the participating teachers on how to effectively use judicially-established facts and evidence when creating educational material related to the 1990s conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

In addition to the participating teachers, ten representatives of history teachers’ associations from across the former Yugoslavia took part in the workshop and provided a valuable regional perspective on history teaching.

Since 2019, more than 500 history teachers from the region of the former Yugoslavia have participated in such MIP trainings. Through these workshops, history educators not only enhance their skills in researching the courts’ archives but also expand their own knowledge of the events of the 1990s conflicts, the crimes committed, and the adjudication of these crimes before the ICTY and the Mechanism.

Once trained, these teachers and educators are better equipped to develop fact-based and engaging lectures about the region’s recent past, using records and judicially-established facts from ICTY and Mechanism cases. So far, teachers who have participated in the MIP’s workshops have prepared and delivered more than 350 lectures for high school students on the basis of knowledge acquired during these workshops.

Trainings on the use of the ICTY and Mechanism archives for history educators form part of the wider MIP, which is funded by the European Union.

The aim of the MIP is to improve the knowledge and understanding of citizens and communities in the countries of the former Yugoslavia about the crimes committed during the conflicts of the 1990s, based on ICTY and Mechanism cases.