Reconciliation through History Education

Donor: European Commission through the “Sarajevo 2014” Program

The EU funded project “Reconciliation through History Education” has started in May 2014, implemented by the National and University Library of Republika Srpska in partnership with the Agency for Co-operation, Education and Development.

EU supports this project in amount of 245,378 EUR through the “Sarajevo 2014” Program, designed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the World War I, aiming to convey a message of peace, reconciliation and solidarity worldwide.

The project will be implemented during 18 months. Project activities aim to commemorate historical events in Bosnia and Herzegovina preceding the outbreak of the World War I and provide an insight on geo-political European scene at that time.

With an overall objective the project promotes reconciliation and reinforces confidence building towards a peaceful and stable BIH society. Identifying significance of the history education in this process, the project activities are designed to foster critical thinking and culture of open dialogue in the context of the commemoration of historical events in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Through collecting and presenting important historical data and organizing public debates on diversity, aspirations, common values and reconciliation in the context of the commemoration of historical events, the tolerance, non-violent conflict resolution, mutual respect and cooperation among different stakeholder groups will be promoted.

The project foresees design, promotion and distribution of the printed and multi-media publications, resulting from the project activities. The publications, distributed through libraries and schools, will enable wide number of interested public, especially youth, to access these materials, with the objective to diminishing negative patterns and stereotypes in interpretation of the historical events.

It is expected that project activities and publications will improve level of trust, tolerance and cohesion in support of common history education in Bosnia and Herzegovina