A/HRC/25/49/Add.1 and ethnic discrimination. Although there has been progress in eliminating explicit hate speech from history and geography textbooks, significant differences in history teaching still exist and cause serious concern.”22 60. During and following the 1992-1995 war, school curricula were divided into three different and often conflicting versions of history. Immediately after the war, teams of international experts reviewed all textbooks in order to delete references considered to be offensive. The exercise was not without problems. Text correction entailed deleting or blackening out entire sentences, including, for example, references to “genocide” and “aggression” in the textbooks used in the Federation, without, however, proposing any alternative language to describe traumatic events. 61. In April 2005, all Ministries of Education, with the strong support of OSCE and the Council of Europe, adopted a set of guidelines for writing and evaluating history textbooks for primary and secondary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina (www.coe.ba/pdf/History_Report_22_April_05.pdf).23 The guidelines are considered a huge step towards the elaboration of scientifically based and objective textbooks that apply the principle of the multi-perspective, thereby enabling children to learn tolerance and encouraging the development of critical thinking. A new and substantially improved generation of textbooks has now been published in accordance with the guidelines. Furthermore, a teacher’s manual on contemporary history teaching in schools was developed, published and distributed to schools. 62. Nevertheless, it appears that history textbooks still feature a national/ethnic bias.24 A comprehensive study conducted to analyse history textbooks published in 2007/08 demonstrated that all Croatian-language history textbooks for the primary school curriculum presented history as the history of Croats; all history textbooks for the primary school curriculum in Republika Srpska predominantly presented history as the history of Serbs; and some (but not all) history textbooks under the framework curriculum for the compulsory nine years of primary education in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina presented history as predominantly the history of Bosniaks.25 63. Teaching about the 1992-1995 war remains one of the most problematic areas for history teachers in Bosnia and Herzegovina today. It is still a sensitive, highly politicized issue; indeed, some history textbooks make no reference to it at all.26 When references are included, they are mostly one-sided or manipulated to create segregated identities.27 Many interlocutors, including teachers, stressed that they still try to avoid addressing the war. 64. Textbook policies vary between the entities. In Republika Srpska, a single textbook per grade is published and approved, even though the Special Rapporteur was assured that modern textbooks together with additional material are made available to students to develop their critical thinking. She was also informed that, since 2007, vocational schools 22 23 24 25 26 27 14 Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe (see footnote 13), paras. 2627. See OSCE, Modernizing History Teaching (textbooks and curriculum), available from www.oscebih.org/documents/osce_bih_doc_2010122216394466eng.pdf. ECRI, Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina (see footnote 7), para. 65. Heike Karge and Katarina Batarilo, Modernization of History Textbooks in Bosnia and Herzegovina: From the Withdrawal of Offensive Material from Textbooks in 1999 to the New Generation of Textbooks in 2007/2008, Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbooks Research, July 2008. Available from www.gei.de/fileadmin/bilder/pdf/Projekte/SOE_StabiPakt/KB_eng_2012.pdf. Magill, Education and Fragility (see footnote 20), p. 38. Adila Pašalić Kreso, “The war and post-war impact on the educational system of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, International Review of Education, vol. 54, nos. 3-4, 2008.