For the purpose of creating the database, more than 980 final court verdicts were analysed, including decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, the Bosnian State Court and other courts in Bosnia and the region, about war crimes committed in the period 1992-1995.
BIRN BiH Executive Director Denis Dzidic emphasized the importance of the presence of teachers, representatives of education ministries and pedagogical institutes at the presentation of the database, which has now been supplemented with domestic and regional rulings, in addition to ICTY judgments.
Arnhild Spence, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said she was glad that the UN had the opportunity to support BIRN BiH in this groundbreaking work on fact-based teaching of the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Hasan Hasanovic, from the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, stated that he dreamed that we would reach a stage where we wrote such educational content for children. In the past five or six years, the Memorial Centre has made a significant step forward and created exhibitions, scientific research projects and oral history that serve educational purposes, he said.
Haris Rovcanin and Dzana Brkanic, BIRN BiH editors, presenting the database, said it was an educational resource based on judicially verified facts, focusing on established facts about war events rather than on perpetrators.
During a panel discussion, “The Role of Educational System in Peacebuilding Process”, Senad Osmanovic, Head of Education for Brcko District, Azerina Muminovic, Senior Associate for Professional Development of Educators, Teachers, and Associates at the Pre-University Education Institute of Sarajevo Canton, Enisa Golos, Director of the Pedagogical Institute of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, and Nadia Bandic, Assistant Federation Minister of Education, welcomed the database, which for the first time offers teachers across Bosnia a tool for teaching about history and the painful past.
The database and handbook were developed within the project “Building Long-Term Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Investing in the Future”, which is implemented by BIRN BiH, the Srebrenica Memorial Centre and the “Forgotten Children of War” Association, with the support of the United Nations General Secretary’s Peacebuilding Fund, PBF.
The database is free and available for use at the link ratnizločin.detektor.ba