MIP holds follow-up workshops for history teachers from Bosnia and Herzegovina

On 10 December 2022, the Mechanism’s Information Programme for Affected Communities (MIP) held a follow-up workshop on how to use the archives of the ICTY and the Mechanism for 30 history teachers from across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The event was organised in cooperation with the European Association of History Teachers (EUROCLIO) and the Information Centre on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in Sarajevo.

During the session, the participating teachers presented lectures they had prepared using judgements and witness testimonies from cases before the ICTY and the Mechanism, along with other material from the digital archives. Their lectures addressed various topics, including crimes of sexual violence, forced removal and migration, and the use of propaganda during the conflicts.

Applying the knowledge and methodologies they had learned during the previous MIP trainings held in September of this year, the participants discussed further opportunities for teaching about the conflicts, as well as relevant contemporary topics that could also be addressed.

In order to provide a regional perspective during its workshops, the MIP has developed close cooperation with teachers’ associations from countries across the former Yugoslavia. In this regard, 10 representatives of national associations participated as trainers during the workshop, sharing their experience and contextual insights from their own countries with the history teachers from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Importantly, they also brought familiarity and expertise in the use of the ICTY and Mechanism archives, having themselves participated in similar MIP trainings as part of this same project.

Through these workshops, history educators not only enhance their skills in researching the courts’ archives, but also expand their 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, 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.

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.