MIP holds follow-up workshop for history teachers from Zenica-Doboj Canton, Bosnia-Herzegovina

On 30 September 2023, the Mechanism’s Information Programme for Affected Communities (MIP) held a follow-up workshop for 20 history teachers from the Zenica-Doboj Canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on how to use the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (Mechanism). This online event was organised in cooperation with the European Association of History Teachers (EUROCLIO) and the Pedagogical Institute of Zenica.

Led by Ms. Anisa Sućeska, the MIP’s Youth Outreach Coordinator, the workshop provided opportunities for the participating history teachers to apply the knowledge and methodologies they had learned during the previous MIP training held in June of this year.

During the workshop, the teachers presented lectures they had prepared using judgements, witness testimonies and other material from the archives of the ICTY and the Mechanism. Their lectures addressed various topics, including crimes of sexual violence, forcible migrations, command responsibility, crimes against cultural heritage, and the use of propaganda during the conflicts. In preparing their materials, the participants used the MIP’s newly-published Guide for History Teachers: How to Use Archival Material of the ICTY and Mechanism in Teaching the History of the 1990s Conflicts. They also discussed further opportunities for teaching about the 1990s conflicts, as well as relevant contemporary topics.

Eleven representatives of history teachers’ associations from across the former Yugoslavia participated as trainers during this workshop, sharing their experiences and contextual insights from their own countries. Importantly, they brought their own expertise in the use of the ICTY and Mechanism archives, having themselves participated in similar MIP trainings as part of the same project.

Trainings on the use of the ICTY and Mechanism archives for history educators from the region of the former Yugoslavia form part of the wider MIP, which is funded by the European Union. Through these workshops, history educators not only enhance their skills in researching the tribunals’ archives, but also expand their knowledge about the events of the 1990s conflicts, the crimes committed, and the adjudication of these crimes before the ICTY and the Mechanism. Once trained, they are better equipped to develop fact-based and engaging lectures about the region’s recent past, using documents and judicially established facts from both ICTY and Mechanism cases.

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.