OSCE - Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

08/04/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/04/2026 07:28

History Teaching Materials on 1992-1995 in Bosnia and Herzegovina

As a part of a larger effort to foster sustainable return and reconciliation in the country, in 1998, the international community in BiH - with the agreement of education authorities - launched the textbook reform process for the national group of subjects1. In 2000, with the same objective in mind, the Council of Europe Parliamentary
Assembly recommended a moratorium on teaching about the most recent conflict "to enable historians from all communities […] to develop a common approach". Efforts to improve history subject teaching materials resulted in the development and adoption in 2006 of the Guidelines for Textbook Writing and Evaluation of History Textbooks for Primary and Secondary Schools in BiH (the Guidelines). Although subsequently published textbooks showed some improvements, history teaching in BiH continued in many areas to be exploited for the promotion of one-sided narratives, which emphasized differences and deepened divisions in society.

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