A/HRC/37/55 externalize good feelings onto the symbols of their own groups and bad feelings onto the symbols of the groups that are enemies.34 States have an important responsibility to ensure that educational systems do not reinforce antagonisms that question the universality of human dignity but instead actively challenge these assumptions and nurture a culture of human rights, tolerance and respect for diversity. 49. Reassessing the humanity of one’s enemy involves acknowledging the complexities of one’s own group as well. In contexts of slavery and long-standing oppression, discourses about identity generally become singular and thin, crafted in the service of the collective narratives through which claims are justified, the conflict is waged and repression is exercised. It is often the case that both victims and perpetrators, oppressed and oppressors, may have lost a sense of their full humanity. Artistic and cultural initiatives can allow people to transcend particular identities and reinforce identities that unite rather than divide. 50. In Burundi, drumming groups of boys in which all ethnic groups were represented existed before the ethnic violence of the 1990s erupted. The participants had built groups around the shared practice where they experienced values of inter-ethnic trust and solidarity, and chose to emphasize their identity as drummers over their ethnic origin. Between March 1994 and March 1998, the drummers continued playing and performing in different neighbourhoods, supported each other and saved each other’s lives repeatedly. 35 The peacebuilding NGO Search for Common Ground worked along the same lines through the end of the 1990s to counteract dehumanizing stereotypes that scarred the relationships between Hutu, Tutsi and Twa people. 36 Through music, dance, drumming and the production of radio programmes, they provided spaces where it was possible to recognize the humanity of the other and contributed to a new understanding of the conflict in terms of a political struggle for power rather than in ethnic terms. 2. Listening to and telling stories and empathizing with the suffering of the other 51. The previous holder of the mandate in the field of cultural rights has noted the role historical narratives play in shaping collective identities. She also noted that self-expression through artistic creativity was indispensable to making victims visible. 37 The capacity to shape experience into narrative is one important way that victims can determine the meaning surrounding hurtful and traumatic events such as human rights violations, and thereby regain a measure of empowerment. Violence, however, can strip people of their capacities to compose and tell their stories, as well as their capacities to listen and be receptive to the stories of others. 52. Artists and cultural workers can serve as listeners, help people once deemed adversaries compose their stories in ways that “others” can hear and raise questions about the possibility of forgiveness, even of oneself. Loosening the grip of a particular monolithic narrative (of victimization, for instance) opens possibilities for more nuanced stories and more complex understandings of history. 53. The potential of story-sharing to restore relationships across economic and racial divides has been made apparent in a recent project in the Western Cape, South Africa. In order to involve the people living on his newly inherited land in planning the reorganization of his wine farm, Mark Solms, a white South African, first had to find a way to establish a respectful dialogue. With the help of historians and archaeologists, the workers and Solms literally and figuratively excavated the farm’s land and its history of past slavery and apartheid that linked their families together, and constructed a heritage/oral history project through which everyone shared and listened to each other’s stories and memories. This 34 35 36 37 V. Volkan, “An overview of psychological concepts pertinent to interethnic and/or international relationships”, in The Psychodynamics of International Relationships, vol. I, Concepts and Theories, V. Volkan, D.A. Julius and J.V. Montville, eds. (Lexington Books, 1990). L. Slachmuijlder, “The rhythm of reconciliation: a reflection on drumming as a contribution to reconciliation processes in Rwanda, Burundi, and South Africa”, Recasting Reconciliation through Culture and the Arts, Brandeis University Programme in Peacebuilding and the Arts, 2004. See www.sfcg.org. See A/HRC/28/36, paras. 9−10. 11