ponedjeljak, 1. siječnja 2018.

The report on education in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2000) used as a basis for Rec 1454 (2000) requesting moratorium on teaching about the war 1992-1995

One of the major recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe regarding education in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BaH) was "to continue to press for acceptance of a moratorium on teaching about the most recent conflict so as to enable historians from all the communities in BaH, with the help of international experts, to develop a common approach". Seventeen years after the recommendation was adopted, a relevant progress in terms of teaching about the 1992-95 war  has not been made.  
The Recommendation was made following a debate on 5 April 2000 on the basis of the  Report of the Committee on Culture and Education, rapporteur: Mr de Puig) - below. 
According to the Report, after "nearly a year, in August 1999 the three education ministers bowed to international pressure and finally signed an agreement under which terms and sections which could be considered offensive would be removed from textbooks or marked as debatable. Instructions were circulated to the effect that schools were to remove such terms before the start of the academic year." The Report is drawing a special attention to the UNESCO 1999 report on “national subject” curricula,  followed by a seminar on curriculum reform, organised by UNESCO in Sarajevo in February 2000. The report described  the Bosniac curriculum as the "practical military training for pupils and a view of history in which Bosniacs are systematically represented as past and present victims of aggression, genocide and ethnic cleansing". The concerns related the Croat curriculum were noted as "its close identification with the Republic of Croatia and a tendency to ignore the other nationalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina". Offensive and unacceptable elements of the Serb curriculum again concerned "practical military training, the fact that the “region of reference” is Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and that no account is taken of the country’s other two nationalities".
Discussing on the history teaching, the Report is reflecting to a  number of critical issues bearing enormous  potential impact on BaH society. The 1992-95 war is "an aggression to Bosniacs, civil war to the Serbs and war of liberation to the Croats", but "the most delicate areas concern competing versions of the “truth” and the blame for historical events, with the obvious danger that history teaching will be used as a tool of nationalist propaganda".
Interestingly, when the Parliamentary Assembly debated a proposal by Mr Westendorp, High Representative and the Council of Europe - for a fixed-term moratorium on the teaching of recent history in April 1999, the Bosniac member of the BaH Presidency, Mr Izetbegovic, opposed it as an attack on the truth.


Doc. 8663
14 March 2000
Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Report
Committee on Culture and Education
Rapporteur: Mr Lluís Maria de Puig, Spain, Socialist Group
Summary
Education is a critical factor both in establishing democratic stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in bringing about the return of refugees and displaced persons. The present situation - of ethnic segregation of children, of offensive stereotyping in school textbooks and of lack of co-ordination between the competent authorities - is incompatible with the principles of the Council of Europe.
The Assembly recognises the decisive role the Council of Europe has been playing in co-operation in this field in Bosnia and Herzegovina and makes recommendations to bring education up to European standards. It is essential to re-interpret the Dayton Agreements in order to achieve a more workable distribution of responsibilities at the level of the canton, the entities and the state.
I. Draft recommendation
1.       The Assembly considers education in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be one of the most critical factors both for establishing democratic stability in the country and for bringing about the return of refugees and displaced persons.
2.       It has taken particular note of problems relating to the ethnic segregation of children, language issues, ethnic stereotyping in school textbooks and the authorities’ refusal to develop a common curriculum or to co-ordinate the different curricula.
3.       These problems are incompatible with the principles of the Council of Europe and unworthy of a state signatory to the European Cultural Convention.
4.       The Assembly would point out the good co-operation in the field between the Council of Europe, the Office of the High Representative, Unesco, the World Bank and the European Union.
5.       It is pleased to note that progress has been made in the education sector, in particular through the agreement of the three ministers to remove offensive terms from school textbooks and to set up a conference of education ministers. It welcomes the leading role played by the Council of Europe in both developments.
6.       It regrets that, despite these modest examples of progress, education in Bosnia and Herzegovina remains far behind the corresponding European standards.
7.        Accordingly, the Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
i. provide the means for the Council of Europe to maintain its decisive role in co-operation in the field of education in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
ii. work with the High Representative and the other international organisations present in Bosnia and Herzegovina towards a re-interpretation of the Dayton Agreements in such a way as to achieve a more workable distribution of responsibilities at the level of the cantons, the entities and the state;
iii. co-ordinate its work with that of other international organisations in order to establish a close link between financial support from the international community and the authorities’ compliance with prior conditions, especially regarding the content of school textbooks, segregation, co-ordination and language policies;
iv. continue to press for acceptance of a moratorium on teaching about the most recent conflict so as to enable historians from all the communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the help of international experts, to develop a common approach;
v. ensure that local educational initiatives — in particular those designed to counteract segregationist thinking — continue to be encouraged and developed with the aid of moral and material support, so that what have been isolated projects become the rule rather than the exception;
vi. give consideration, on the basis of pilot projects, to setting up multi-ethnic schools in places where they will have the broadest impact, such as the towns of Brcko and Mostar;
vii. ensure that, in addition to the three constituent communities, all minorities present on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina are also fully able to exercise their rights to education in a multi-ethnic perspective;
viii. propose administrative, financial and legislative solutions designed to lay the foundations for a cost-effective higher education system which will meet current and future needs;
ix. consider using distance learning to overcome ethnic segregation at university level.
II.       Explanatory memorandum by Mr de Puig
1. Introduction
Since the Assembly debate in April 1999 on Bosnia and Herzegovina, to which the Committee on Culture and Education contributed by presenting a report on education (Doc. 8385 — rapporteur Mr Kollwelter), the committee has continued to monitor closely the development of education in the country.
Bosnia and Herzegovina became party to the European Cultural Convention in 1994. As such, it participates as of right in co-operation within the Council of Europe in the fields of culture, education, heritage, youth and sport.
As my predecessor last year, I should recall that Bosnia and Herzegovina applied for Council of Europe membership in April 1995, that the Committee of Ministers decided in January 1999 to request an opinion from the Parliamentary Assembly on this application and that responsibility for issuing the opinion lies with the Committees on Political Affairs and on Legal Affairs.
None the less, education is considered to be one of the most critical factors both in establishing democratic stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in bringing about the return of displaced persons. The Council of Europe's attention has repeatedly been drawn to the importance of the education system in ensuring the transition to democracy. Problems such as the ethnic segregation of children, language issues, ethnic stereotyping in school textbooks and the difficulties of developing a common curriculum have often been raised. As these issues are inseparable from the process of Bosnian accession, the Committee on Culture and Education has taken the decision to propose that the Assembly hold a debate on education before considering — as it will do later — the question of Bosnian membership of the Council of Europe.
In order to prepare this report, I visited Bosnia and Herzegovina from 8 to 10 February 2000 in the company of Mr João Ary, Secretary of the Committee on Culture and Education. I met officials from the different education ministries (Serb, Croat and Bosniac), heads of educational establishments, university rectors, teachers, student representatives and members of international organisations and NGOs (see attached programme).
2. The political situation
Under the Dayton Agreements of November 1995, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is composed of two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (established under the March 1994 Washington Agreements) and the Republika Srpska (created in January 1993). The Federation comprises ten cantons, of which five have a large Bosniac majority, three a large Croat majority and two a significant Croat minority. The border between the two entities corresponds to the line separating the Bosniacs and Croats on one side from the Serbs on the other. This separation is a consequence of the war and does not reflect the previous demographic situation (see attached maps).
          The Dayton Agreements provide for the return of displaced persons to their places of origin. Notwithstanding, more than four years later ethnic segregation remains unchanged and the vast majority of those displaced have failed to return. It seems obvious to me that no one should wish to settle in a hostile environment offering no guarantees of employment and where, moreover, children would have to switch to a new education system.
          Bosnia and Herzegovina operates on two levels. On the one hand there are the international organisations, with SFOR, the United Nations stabilisation force, responsible for all military matters and the Office of the High Representative responsible for everything else. On the other hand there are the national authorities, with three armies (Bosniac, Serb and Croat) and government institutions at the level of the state, the entities and the cantons. Under the Washington and Dayton Agreements, nearly all powers (and control of resources) in the Republika Srpska are exercised by the entity; in the Federation they are exercised at cantonal level.
          However, the cantons with a Croat majority have effectively grouped themselves together under the “Croat Community of Herzeg-Bosna”, which claims to protect the interests of all Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The country is thus divided into three “communities”, each of which is represented by a nationalist political party — the Bosniac SDA, the Serb SDS and the Croat HDZ. Characterised by a lack of clear ideology (apart from that of nationalism) and next to no political programme, these parties manage to maintain power by proclaiming themselves to their respective communities as the only force capable of offering protection against the other two ethnic groups.
          In parallel with these three parties, political groupings a little closer to our European parties are beginning to emerge, along with a nascent local civil society alongside the international organisations and NGOs of every description. It is generally agreed, however, that none of these parties have any hope in the forthcoming local or national elections (due respectively in April and October 2000). Another point of agreement is that the situation cannot change as long as those who led the country into war remain in power.
          The state institutions set up under the Dayton Agreements have never been able to operate because they are openly boycotted by the three communities (especially the Serb and the Croat) and by the entities — which are supposed to provide funding. Four years after Dayton, therefore, the state parliament has still not managed to adopt a "permanent law" on election or a law on privatisation, both of which, however, regarded as essential.
          In the light of the recent changes in Croatia (including the election of a new president) and in view above all of statements made by the country's new leaders concerning their relations with the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a fresh approach to co-operation would appear to be possible, at least within the Federation. We sensed very clearly from our meetings with Croats that they feel threatened by the new situation. At every turn they accuse the international community of supporting the SDA and of wanting to install an Islamic republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
          It is increasingly openly acknowledged that the current Bosnian Constitution, as annexed to the Dayton Agreements, is in practice an obstacle to the country’s proper functioning. However, since no revision of the Agreements is to be expected, the probable solution would be to re-interpret them in such a way as to achieve a more functional distribution of responsibilities at the level of the cantons, the entities and the state. All representatives of the international community on the spot and several local officials (chiefly Bosniacs) expressed agreement with this step, but there is fierce opposition from the Serb and Croat nationalist parties.
3.       The development of education in Bosnia and Herzegovina
          In the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, education was the responsibility of each of the republics and co-ordination at federal level was primarily concerned with ideology. However, in terms of general structure and of curriculum content and form, between 1945 and 1990 the education system in the Socialist Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina was not substantially different from that in the other republics of the former Yugoslavia. There was a single education system for all inhabitants, whether Serb, Croat or Bosniac, and the language of instruction was Serbo-Croat. Both the Cyrillic and the Latin alphabets were taught, though the former was in decline.
The 1992-95 war opposing the paramilitary forces of the Bosnian Serbs (greatly assisted by the federal Yugoslav army), the army of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Croatian-supported Croat Defence Council (HVO) completely dismantled the education system. No financial support was available, many schools were damaged or destroyed, others were used to shelter displaced persons or requisitioned by the military, thousands of school books and complete libraries were set on fire, populations were displaced and many teachers and pupils were killed, so that by mid-1992 it was already no longer possible to speak of an education system in the country.
          The country's division along ethnic lines has been accompanied by a process of linguistic separation. Whereas before the war all inhabitants of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina spoke a form of Serbo-Croat, Croats now claim to speak the “Croat language”, Serbs the “Serb language” and Bosniacs the “Bosniac language”. Although the last named has remained very close to the language spoken in the country before the war, a number of words invented or rediscovered by linguists in Zagreb have been introduced into the “Croat language” (it would be interesting to monitor this phenomenon in the light of the recent political changes in Croatia). Despite the apparent complexity of these linguistic developments, mutual comprehension between the three versions presents no difficulties.
          Since 1992, then, three systems have gradually become established on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina:
          —in       the Serb-controlled area, corresponding to the present-day Republika Srpska, the system is imported from Serbia and uses textbooks from Belgrade, the Cyrillic alphabet and the “Serb language”;—
          —in       the area controlled by HVO forces, which now corresponds to the three Croat-majority cantons and parts of two other cantons, and in the Catholic schools which have sprung up wherever Croats live, the Croatian system has been imported, using school books from Zagreb, the Latin alphabet and the “Croat language”;—
          —th       e Bosniac system, which uses the “Bosniac language”, was developed in Sarajevo with schoolbooks produced under difficult circumstances during the siege of that city.4.
4.       Current situation
a.       General background
Language and, more generally, education policies have become a vehicle for promoting “national” separation. The political struggle within education manifests itself both in the context of “national subjects” — history, language and literature and social studies — and in the desire for political control of the three separate education systems. In practice, this is reflected by history textbooks which cause offence to the other two “nationalities” and by parallel administration at all levels of the education system in the Federation. The formal divide between the Federation and the Republika Srpska may be interpreted as another form of “parallelism”, although in this instance there is a constitutional basis for the existence of two systems. The political division of education in Bosnia and Herzegovina is well established in the Federation, where Croat political authorities, who feel isolated by their smaller numbers and by the attention given to the Bosniac-dominated institutions in Sarajevo, refuse to co-operate with their Federation partners even on mathematics and science curricula.
This is the reality of Bosnia and Herzegovina today, and no significant changes should be expected in the short term.
b.       The consequences of Dayton for education
By the signature of the Dayton Agreements, Bosnia and Herzegovina was declared an independent state composed of two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska. Under the Agreements, the national government retains only such powers as will enable it to act as the government of an internationally recognised state. The majority of governmental powers — including responsibility for education, science and culture — are vested in the two entities. In the Federation, competence for education is devolved to the ten constituent cantons. The legislation of certain cantons provides that this authority can be further devolved to the municipal level. There are no sub-units in the Republika Srpska, where educational competence is centralised at the level of the entity and exercised by a single ministry of education.
Each canton in the Federation therefore has the right to organise and manage its own education system, including higher education, although some cantons do not have higher education institutions. Education is generally funded through income tax and other revenues.
Because each canton can set standards, devise legislation and regulations and choose or develop its own curriculum and textbooks, political divisions and tensions that emerged during the war have been reinforced and, in some cases, intensified. Currently, nationalist policies are expressed through control of curricula, textbooks and access to education. In the context of the cantons, educational decision-making contributes to further division and fragmentation and becomes a vehicle for nationalist political groups to pursue their separatist agendas.
As a direct consequence of Dayton, the education sector is dominated by politics. Major educational decisions are made almost exclusively in the context of continuing political tensions between national groups. This has resulted in two parallel systems in the Federation and a third in the Republika Srpska. The problem is particularly acute within the Federation Ministry and in the cantons with a large Croat minority, where parallel administrative institutions have emerged to provide education for their respective ethnic groups. Recruitment within the divided ministries must respect the requirement for an ethnic balance. As this balance carries with it the political agendas that split the Federation, the minister and the deputy minister cater to their political constituencies through two separate teams of different ethnic origins.
Another consequence of “Daytonisation” has been the complete marginalisation of other ethnic groups, chiefly Roma and Jews, who were not taken into account among the peoples making up Bosnia and Herzegovina and who, to exist legally, must choose between being Bosniac, Serb or Croat. Since no educational provision has been made for them either, here too they have to choose between the three education systems.
c.       Ethnic segregation
On each occasion that I raised this issue during our meetings with local officials, I was assured that discrimination did not exist in the schools of their respective systems. While it is true that no law or regulation specifies that children shall be discriminated against on ethnic grounds (as formerly in South Africa and the USA), de facto discrimination does nonetheless exist in the country’s three education systems.
We were informed by Mr Dragosavljevic, the Republika Srpska Deputy Minister for Education, that each school with at least 25 non-Serb pupils could request instruction in their mother tongue and following their own curriculum. We later learned that this is not true of a single school in the Republika Srpska. On the contrary, Bosniac and Croat children are obliged to follow the Serb curriculum.
The same situation obtains in the Federation. For example, at the beginning of the current academic year the media reported that some 300 children of Bosniac refugees had been unable to attend school in Zepce municipality, where the Croat curriculum is used, and that some 250 Croat refugee children had faced difficulties in Bugojno, which has a Bosniac majority. Similar problems have been reported in Stolac, Capljina and Vares.
Religion too is used as an instrument for segregation. We heard that the majority of schools in the Republika Srpska are decorated with Orthodox motifs and that for the pupils of one Sarajevo school, including both Bosniac and non-Bosniac children, Ramadan had been the focus of the entire first term of the current academic year.
d.       Textbooks
Together with the Office of the High Representative, Unesco, other international organisations and NGOs, the Council of Europe has worked within the Sarajevo Return Commission and the steering group for education in Sarajevo on the task of identifying ethnic stereotyping and potentially offensive material in school textbooks. In his report last year Mr Kollwelter described how this activity had been sabotaged.
Having stalled for nearly a year, in August 1999 the three education ministers bowed to international pressure and finally signed an agreement under which terms and sections which could be considered offensive would be removed from textbooks or marked as debatable. Instructions were circulated to the effect that schools were to remove such terms before the start of the academic year.
When the school year began, the Office of the High Representative and other international organisations undertook a major exercise to monitor compliance with these instructions. Despite some major reservations concerning certain schools and municipalities, it was ascertained that considerable progress had been made on the first stage of implementation. Generally speaking, compliance was greater in the Federation than in the Republika Srpska.
It should be pointed out that this is just the first step in a long process. The second stage, which will consist of indicating which topics and passages contain information the accuracy of which has not been checked, has yet to get under way.
e.       School curricula
The issue of developing and reforming school curricula in the whole country is a major priority. At present each national group within Bosnia and Herzegovina makes use of an ethnic syllabus which it has itself developed, and there is practically no co-ordination or co-operation (in spite of which we were told that the three curricula are 95% identical). However, because results are not recognised throughout the country, it is difficult for children to change schools, and problems also exist in connection with the return of refugees and access to higher education.
In August 1999 Unesco published a report on “national subject” curricula. This was followed by a seminar on curriculum reform, which Unesco organised in Sarajevo in February 2000. According to the report, unacceptable elements of the Bosniac curriculum concern practical military training for pupils and a view of history in which Bosniacs are systematically represented as past and present victims of aggression, genocide and ethnic cleansing. Unacceptable aspects of the Croat curriculum are its close identification with the Republic of Croatia and a tendency to ignore the other nationalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Offensive and unacceptable elements of the Serb curriculum again concern practical military training, the fact that the “region of reference” is Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and that no account is taken of the country’s other two nationalities.
Serbs and Croats gave a hostile reception to the report and to all reference to the possibility either of a partially shared curriculum or of co-ordination between the three curricula. Addressing the Unesco seminar, the Serb minister said that the very idea of a common curriculum was a direct attack on the Dayton Agreements and peace plan. Both the Serb minister’s representative and that of his Croat counterpart considered references to “Bosnian Serbs/Croats” an insult.
For this reason, political discussion of model curricula has so far prevented practical consideration (which is far more necessary) of their content.
f.       Language issues
Some representatives of the education authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina consider that the new linguistic situation —with three “languages” — calls for distinct education systems, on the grounds that the various needs cannot be reconciled within a single system. The production of new textbooks for Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is essential for the country's development, therefore raises a number of serious problems, since arguments based on linguistic rights are used to justify segregation in schools and the drawing up of distinct syllabuses for each ethnic group. Accepting linguistically distinct versions of textbooks, as the representatives of the different education authorities demand, would thus be a further step down the path towards accepting the segregation of children according to language and ethnic background.
          The political stakes of the language issue for the public authorities should not be underestimated, since the outcome could determine the viability of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a coherent state. So far there has been no independent assessment of the country's linguistic development, and in the current political climate it is unlikely that the national authorities will request such an exercise.
g.       History teaching
A number of critical issues have emerged concerning history teaching. Their potential impact on Bosnian society is enormous. The most acute problems relate to the recent conflict (aggression to Bosniacs, civil war to the Serbs and war of liberation to the Croats), but all teaching of Balkan history raises difficulties. The most delicate areas concern competing versions of the “truth” and the blame for historical events, with the obvious danger that history teaching will be used as a tool of nationalist propaganda.
Certain proposals have been drawn up to deal with these problems. Mr Kollwelter’s report refers to a Council of Europe and High Representative proposal for a fixed-term moratorium on the teaching of recent history to enable local historians from all ethnic groups to work with international historians on a version (or versions) of recent events which everyone accepts and which can be used in schools.
          When the Parliamentary Assembly debated Bosnia and Herzegovina in April 1999, the Bosniac member of the joint presidency, Mr Izetbegovic, opposed such a moratorium as an attack on the truth. However, as Mr Westendorp so pertinently pointed out at the end of the debate, in the case of a conflict such as that in Bosnia and Herzegovina truth is always the first victim. The response to the moratorium by other politicians in the country has been negative in the extreme. The recommendation is seen as a call for “lies and silence”.
          In spite of these negative reactions, it is my view that the Council of Europe must continue to press for acceptance of the moratorium.
          The Council of Europe has stressed the importance of supporting approaches to history which take account of diverse points of view and encourage the development of critical and analytical thinking as advocated in Recommendation 1283 (1996) on history and the learning of history in Europe. In November 1999 a seminar on the teaching of controversial and sensitive issues was jointly organised in Sarajevo with the Office of the High Representative. The seminar was attended by writers of history textbooks, teachers and teacher trainers from all over the country. Its conclusions pave the way for an integrated teaching process which will start in 2000 within the framework of the Stability Pact. The Council of Europe should focus its activity in particular on the development of history syllabuses and integrated training for teachers from all the ethnic communities.
h.       Higher education
As regards higher education, it would seem that what appears to be three different systems is really a single one — the old, very cumbersome and obsolete central European system — approached from three separate nationalist viewpoints. Universities and departments are currently springing up everywhere. Their autonomous status adds to the waste of resources and problems of co-ordination. The student representatives whom we met complained about the poor standard of teachers, who merely reproduced what they themselves had learned some decades previously. In general, the students lack motivation, and it is proving difficult to persuade them to take part in reforming their instituions.
The Council of Europe should focus its activity in this sector on ways of developing the system and ensuring its overall co-ordination so that all citizens can enjoy equal access to higher education. The fact that the system is so highly decentralised raises particularly serious problems, and issues of funding, quality, the recognition of qualifications, breaks in studying and internal mobility should continue to be given high priority.
To help resolve these problems, the Council of Europe has lent support to the creation of a National Higher Education Council. That such a body is needed to lay down policy guidelines and provide co-ordination has been recognised both within the country and by all the international organisations active in the education sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The World Bank has made the existence of the Higher Education Council a pre-condition for investment in the sector, and it is hoped that the remaining obstacles will be overcome in the months ahead. The three education ministers have agreed to the setting up of this Council. It remains to be seen how it will operate in practice.
5.       Conclusions
          The main challenges facing the country — smoothing the return of displaced persons and guaranteeing democratic stability — are closely dependent on positive changes in the education system. The country's ethnic segregation calls for urgent attention, since the “ghettoisation” of pupils according to their linguistic and/or ethnic backgrounds would cast doubt on its long-term viability as a multi-ethnic state.
          There is an urgent need for co-ordination at cantonal level — and between the Federation and the Republika Srpska — in order to safeguard every community’s rights to education. Grades and exam results must be standardised and recognised not only in a canton but everywhere in the country, so that pupils face no obstacles on moving to schools in other cantons, entities or countries. In addition to the question of official recognition, curricula and examinations must be acknowledged as being essentially the same in every part of the country. If the current situation continues, fears about their children’s education may prevent displaced persons from taking the difficult decision to return to their places of origin. The problems of access to higher education will become acute too if there is no improvement in co-operation between cantons.
          Achieving the transition to a more integrated education system — or at least the more effective co-ordination of parallel systems — is an immensely difficult task which necessitates complex planning in stages and the restoration of confidence between the different communities. In the present post-war context, where most of the country's regions continue to be divided along ethnic lines, few issues can have a higher priority.
Since last year, in addition to progress on the textbooks question, one other recommendation formulated by Mr Kollwelter has been followed up — namely, the establishment of a formal conference of education ministers to settle matters of common interest. Following a proposal by the Council of Europe, what was an informal meeting of the ministers has become a “standing conference”. Although the conference’s functions have not yet been clearly defined, the very fact that it is able to take decisions must be seen as a positive move. The Conference of Education Ministers is a good example of a re-interpretation of the Dayton Agreements, as proposed in the draft recommendation.
FACT FINDING MISSION TO BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Mr. Lluis Maria de Puig, Rapporteur on education
to the Committee on Culture and Education
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
7 – 10 February 2000
Monday 7 February 2000
16.00       Unesco symposium on the curricula of the "national" subjects in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Tuesday 8 February 2000
0 9.00       Unesco symposium on the curricula of the "national" subjects in Bosnia and Herzegovina
16:00       Meeting with Mr Jurkic, Deputy Federal Minister of Education
16.30       Meeting with Mr Proko Dragosavljevic, Deputy Minister of Education, Republika Srpska
17.15       Meeting with Ambassador Hoffman, Deputy High Representative
18:00       Meeting with Mr Rizvanbegovic, Federal Minister of Education
20:00       Dinner with Mrs Ilona Szenso, World Bank
Wednesday 9 February 2000
09:00       Meeting with students (Serdarevic, Student Union, Kulenovic, Youth Club "Say Yes", etc)
10:00       Meeting with Mrs Svjetlana Broz and Mrs Sabiha Miskin, teachers
15:00       Meeting with Mr Halilovic, Minister of Education, Canton Sarajevo
15: 45       Meeting with Mrs Hadzagic, Minister for Culture and Sport, Canton Sarajevo
17:30       Meeting at UN, Ambassador Jacques-Paul Klein and Mr Kishore Mandhyan
20.00       Dinner with Mr Benedek, WUS Austria, and Council of Europe team on minority languages
Thursday 10 February 2000
09:00        Meeting with Mr Mulabegovic, Rector of Sarajevo University
10.00       Meeting with the International Human Rights Law Group (Ms Idzakovic)
11.00       Meeting with Mr Claude Kieffer, Senior Education Officer, OHR

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