The image of the other in conflict and post-conflict situations is crucially important to the processes of reconciliation and establishing trust-based relationships.

This is a field in which the Council of Europe already has a substantial body of achievement that reflects, in particular, recent bilateral and regional co-operation.
 

It should be remembered that as long ago as 1950 the Council’s first co-operation activity in the field of education was the analysing of history textbooks with a view to avoiding stereotyping.
 

This part of the project sought to consolidate the conclusions of recent activities by exploring earlier examples of reconciliation processes which involved developing new perceptions of the conflicting parties’ histories.
 

The lessons to be learned from these experiences received special attention, with a view to the potential role of history teaching in preventing crimes against humanity.