BACKGROUND on EDUCATION ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST at UNESCO

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1 BRIEFING NOTE (26 Oct. 2016) Education about the Holocaust UNESCO Education about the Holocaust Global Citizenship Education UNESCO encourages Member States to develop programmes that strengthen a culture of prevention and foster understanding of the causes and consequences of the Holocaust and how genocide can happen so as to help young people become more aware of the processes that can lead societies to descend into violence. To that end, the Organization supports education stakeholders to engage in teaching about the Holocaust as a means to foster the knowledge, skills and competences that will help learners become critical thinkers, responsible and active global citizens who value human dignity and respect for all, reject antisemitism and other forms of prejudice that can lead to group-targeted violence and genocide, and are proactive contributors to a more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive and secure world. BACKGROUND on EDUCATION ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST at UNESCO UNESCO s work in the field of education about the Holocaust is framed by UNESCO General Conference resolution 34C/61 (2007) on Holocaust Remembrance asking UNESCO to promote awareness of Holocaust remembrance through education and (to combat) all forms of Holocaust denial in accordance with previous United Nations resolutions. UNESCO s General Conference resolution is a follow-up on resolutions 60/7 of 1 November 2005 ( Holocaust remembrance ) and 61/255 of 26 January 2007 ( Holocaust denial ) adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. The United Nations resolution 60/7 of 1 November 2005 ( Holocaust Remembrance ) urges member states to inculcate young generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide. It also establishes an International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, to be held every year on 27 January, liberation date of the extermination and concentration camp of Auschwitz- Birkenau by the Soviet Army. Building on UNESCO s strong convening power, its role in shaping the international education agenda and its large networks, the main objectives of the programme are as follows: Raise and Maintain awareness about the legacy of the Holocaust among education stakeholders, through remembrance and advocacy activities Develop policies and systems that are supportive of education about the Holocaust and other genocides

2 I. NEW DEVELOPMENTS UNESCO and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum are launching a Five Year Joint Pilot Programme to Promote Education about the Holocaust and the Relevance to Contemporary Issues and the Prevention of Genocide. The goal of the programme is to advance learning about why and how the Holocaust happened and how genocide can happen as a component of the educational efforts of countries of influence where such learning is not well-developed or could be further improved. The programme consists in 4 main actions: 1. Develop a rationale for education policymakers for why, in the framework of global citizenship education, teaching and learning about the Holocaust is important, and produce policy guidelines on how the history of the Holocaust can be introduced into educational systems. 2. Identify, bring together and build the capacity of education stakeholders at the national level to develop and implement country-specific strategies though the International Conference on Education and the Holocaust (ICEH), a capacity-building mechanism seeking to advance institutionalization of education about the Holocaust. 3. Provide support for strategies to institutionalize education about the Holocaust and its relevance to other genocides in a way that takes into account the specific contexts of participating countries (technical expertise, project monitoring, awareness raising initiatives). 4. In support of the development of the guidelines, their implementation at the national level, and the implementation of strategies and projects developed through the ICEH, UNESCO and the USHMM will initiate research to provide education stakeholders with examples of best practices when teaching and learning about the Holocaust and its relevance to other genocides. The project is supported with a US$500,000 from Global Affairs Canada.

3 II. ACTIVITY AREAS Advocacy and awareness raising UNESCO organizes policy and advocacy events on education about the history of the Holocaust and genocide, both at Headquarters and around the world, in order to engage decision-makers in education and leading experts in the field in dialogue on best strategies and practices to introduce the subject in educational settings. Ongoing: Education, cultural and academic activities on the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, every year on 27 January. The 2017 commemoration will focus on the theme Educating for a Better Future: The Role of Historic Sites and Museums in Holocaust Education. Besides the ceremony, UNESCO will organize a round-table with directors of memorials and present the exhibition Archeology (provisory title) currently being prepared by the Auschwitz- Birkenau State Museum. Partners of the event are the Shoah Memorial (France), the City Hall of Paris, and the Auschwitz- Birkenau State Museum commemorations Ongoing: The Former-Yugoslav Pavilion in Auschwitz: UNESCO supports discussions on the renovation and transformation of the Block 17, located within the State Museum of Auschwitz- Birkenau, Poland, and on the setting up of a joint exhibition on the Holocaust for Ex-Yugoslav countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).

4 Technical guidance UNESCO provides education stakeholders with technical guidance, formulates recommendations for curriculum and textbook development and revision, and fosters research on education policies and practices. Ongoing: UNESCO, the European Union Commission and the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbooks Research have launched a new research to provide a detailed overview of how the Holocaust, and other genocides, appear in textbooks and curricula of European Union countries. It will also study students perceptions of the Holocaust in all European Union countries, thus providing a first international comparison of learners outcomes in the field of teaching and learning about the Holocaust. A first presentation of the projects results will be organized in the first semester of Ongoing: UNESCO and the Asia Pacific Centre of Education for International Dialogue (APCIEU) included in October 2016 approximately 300 new references dealing with education about the Holocaust and other genocides in the UNESCO Clearing-house on Global Citizenship Education, hosted by APCIEU. Furthermore, the APCIEU decided to introduce sessions on Holocaust and genocide education in its regional and global seminars on Global Citizenship Education, organized in partnership with UNESCO. The first training seminar, titled the Global Capacity-Building Workshop took place in Seoul, Korea, from 19 June to 2 July 2016 and included a session led by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Ongoing: UNESCO and the USHMM are currently drafting policy guidelines for education stakeholders on Education about the Holocaust, its relevance to contemporary issues and the prevention of genocide. In addition, UNESCO will publish a background research paper on how Education about the Holocaust advances Global Citizenship Education, one of the targets of the education goal in the post-2015 development agenda.

5 Capacity building UNESCO works with interested Member States to introduce the subject in education systems by providing, with a wide-range of partners, opportunities for capacity building of education stakeholders of the formal and non-formal education sectors. Ongoing: UNESCO has created a Latin American Network for Education about the Holocaust and other Genocides comprising representatives of ministries of education of Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. The Network meets regularly to foster regional dialogue on the issue of dealing with a past of mass atrocities through education and to design regional opportunities for capacity-building. The last meeting of the Network was hosted by the UNESCO Chair on Genocide Education of the USC Shoah Foundation in September In addition, Network representatives and other high-level civil servants from 7 countries of the region participated in a USC Shoah Foundation capacity-building seminar in the same week, which included interventions from Yad Vashem (Israel) and Yahad-In-Unum (France). Ongoing: UNESCO builds the capacity of education stakeholders of Sub-Saharan African countries to introduce education about genocides and mass atrocities in their education system, in support of local efforts to promote a culture of peace. In 2014 and 2015, UNESCO, with the Shoah Memorial (France), has trained high-level civil servants of Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Côte d Ivoire, Senegal, Rwanda and Togo, in view of developing national initiatives. Coming: UNESCO and the Ministry of Education of Senegal, in partnership with the Shoah Memorial, the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, will hold a sub-regional capacity-building seminar on 23 and 24 November Will participate education policy-makers of Burkina-Faso, Côte d Ivoire, Mali, Gambia and Senegal. In addition, UNESCO, the Shoah Memorial, the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre and the Ministry of Education of Senegal will hold a public conference for educators and students on the theme Educating about the history of genocides at the Cheikh-Anta-Diop University of Dakar on 22 November. Ongoing: The Conference for International Holocaust Education (CIHE) is a professional development programme designed jointly by UNESCO and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to support education stakeholders from all regions of the world. Participants are asked to develop national education or academic programmes that can contribute to the institutionalization or the strengthening of Holocaust/genocide studies/education. The first meeting took place in Washington DC in October As a result, projects on Holocaust and genocide education are now being conducted in Chile, Hungary, India, Republic of Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, Rwanda, and Turkey. Video A similar event is in preparation for 2017, as part of a partnership between UNESCO and the USHMM.

6 UNESCO NETWORKS IN THE FIELD OF HOLOCAUST/GENOCIDE STUDIES/EDUCATION Memory of the World Register The Memory of the World Register includes the Archives of the Warsaw Ghetto ( Emanuel Ringelblum Archives, 1999), the Diaries of Anne Frank (2009), the Pages of Testimony Collection of Yad Vashem (2013) and the archives of the International Tracing Service (2013). World Heritage The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is a World Heritage Site since UNESCO Chairs - Rutgers University (New Jersey, United States) has created in 2012 a UNESCO Chair for the Prevention of Genocide (launched officially in presence of the UN Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide in October 2013). The Chair holder is Alexander Hinton, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. - The University of Southern California has created a UNESCO Chair for Genocide Education in October The Chair holder is Stephen Smith, director of the USC Shoah Foundation. - In 2014, the Jagellonian University of Krakow, Poland created a UNESCO for Holocaust Education. The Chair holder is Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Director of the Centre for Holocaust Studies. - In 2014, the Aix-en-Provence-Marseille University/Les Milles Memorial Site in France created a UNESCO Chair for the Convergence of Memories (Chair holder: Alain Chouraqui, President of Les Milles Memorial Camp Foundation). - The UNESCO Chair of Bioethics at the University of Haifa is also active in the field. NGO with Official Partnership with UNESCO The Simon Wiesenthal Center (USA, since 1998) and the Shoah Memorial, Museum, Centre for Contemporary Jewish Documentation (France, since 2009) maintain an official partnership with UNESCO. Moreover, Jewish organizations such as the Bnai Brith, the World Jewish Congress, the International Association of Jewish Women and the World Union of Jewish Students also maintain official relations with UNESCO.