A/68/296 State of Palestine. 3 In South-Eastern Europe, dramatic transitional changes have profoundly affected the interpretation of history and history teaching has contributed to, served to justify and even fuelled conflicts. In the European Union, most countries have had conflicts with neighbouring countries either bilaterally or as part of antagonistic blocs, rendering all European history controversial. 4 European countries continue to offer differentiated narratives of the Holocaust, 5 while former Eastern bloc countries face difficulties with their communist past. Examples may also be found in Latin America and in Africa, where the teaching of history remains controversial, including in countries that have undergone a truth and reconciliation process. 25. Often, a specific period of history or event is simply omitted from school teaching. This is especially evident following major upheavals, when a new narrative is promoted, and in societies seeking to achieve reconciliation after wars, internal strife or dictatorships, motivated by a deliberate attempt to conceal data, either to shield key actors from prosecution or to achieve reconciliation, or both. Such an omission can also result from the sheer impossibility of divided societies reaching agreement on how to describe a shared past of conflict, violence and pain. 26. Past conflict is sometimes considered too recent to be addressed and taught in schools. Understanding the past requires distance. It is usually considered that at least one generational period is needed before painful events can be discussed openly. Nevertheless, discussions on recent events are inevitably conducted within society, and younger generations receive historical narratives from various sources, including the Internet. History teaching in schools therefore appears to remain the best option to deal with a recent painful past because it affords an opportunity to exercise critical thinking and expose pupils to various narratives. This, however, calls for robust education of teachers. 27. Following the cessation of armed conflicts (and sometimes even during conflicts), history textbooks may gain a new mission: that of laying the ground for a potential future “payback” for past events. The teaching of history may serve as the continuation of war by other means, given that books continue to construct the image of the enemy, preparing future generations for the continuation of hostilities, with even the most ancient past being readjusted to accommodate the needs of contemporary politics and future conflict. 28. In acute cases following internal conflicts, such policies can be accompanied by a segregated school system in which pupils are taught diverging monochromatic historical narratives. Major political upheavals create deep social turbulence, social confusion and the circulation of unreliable knowledge, weakening the critical thinking of citizens. When different parts of the same society learn divergent historical narratives and have negligible opportunities to interact, this can lead to __________________ 3 4 5 13-42291 See Sami Adwan, Baniel Bar-Tal and Bruce Wexler, “Victims of our own narratives: portrayal of the ‘other’ in Israeli and Palestinian school books”, February 2013. See Maitland Stobart, “Fifty years of European cooperation on history textbooks: the role and contribution of the Council of Europe”, Internationale Schulbuchforschung/International Textbook Research, vol. 21 (1999), pp. 147-161. See Robert Stradling, Teaching 20th-Century European History (Strasbourg, Council of Europe Publishing, 2001); Falk Pingel, The European Home: Representations of 20th Century Europe in History Textbooks (Strasbourg, Council of Europe Publishing, 2000); John Slater, Teaching History in the New Europe (Cassell, London, 1995). 9/27