A/HRC/28/36 of willingness to set each other’s differences aside. Mr. Adwan stressed that it was, however, important that such textbooks be drafted by teachers and not by historians, because the drafting process would itself re-educate the teachers to some extent and train them in a way that they could then pass on to their pupils the new parallel narratives and multi-perspectives of teaching history. Today’s main challenge was to ensure that teachers felt comfortable and enjoyed in practice the freedom to teach both narratives. This should be seen not as a frightening experience but as an empowering one. Such freedom should be guaranteed by the State. 19. Mr. Adwan insisted on the strong role played by families in educating younger generations about past events. However, the teaching that children received from their family relations was often biased and contributed to fuelling ongoing tensions and misunderstandings. While teachers should be in charge of delivering a more inclusive, multi-perspective and impartial account of historical events, they must feel secure in doing so and be convinced of the advantages of the multi-perspective approach. Mr. Adwan emphasized the need to give children access to a variety of materials and resources in addition to a multiplicity of textbooks and to train teachers accordingly. Also on the issue of curriculum content, he stated that agreed criteria based on human rights should be abided by, and that historical research should continue on the reasons that led to certain historical events. 20. Despite the arduous experience, Mr. Adwan stated that he would recommend such a project to other nations that were experiencing conflicting relations, political or otherwise, with regards to historical narratives. 21. Ms. Wilson contributed as a Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. That Commission had published as mandated a history book on the Indian residential schools system, which had affected many generations of indigenous children of Canada and had created a legacy of societal and personal harms. She said that the aim of the book had been to capture part of Canada’s history that had been not only unknown to many but also denied by others, including victims of these painful events. These past events had had the effect of creating distorted or non-existent relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in Canada, amplified by the teaching of different narratives, generation after generation, and by the fact that history textbooks themselves had included negative stereotypes. That is why the history book had been published as part of a wider educational challenge, which, once overcome, would eventually result in a better informed adult population capable in turn of teaching a more honest narrative of Canada to their own children. Ms. Wilson underlined the need for citizens to be informed by actions taken by the State, but also the media, to reshape societies beyond given narratives. 22. Commissioner Wilson added that the impact of the history book would begin to be felt when its contents became part of the history of Canada that all children would learn. She underlined that provinces and territories in Canada could use it as a starting point in view of developing more tailored narratives of the events that had taken place in their respective jurisdictions. Two provinces and territories had already made the book part of a compulsory new course of study for all students. Ms. Wilson emphasized, however, that one crucial element was political will, and expressed her appreciation for the leadership that some ministers of education had demonstrated in prioritizing the drafting of a new curriculum in just a year and a half. The production of the curriculum was also the fruit of hard and collaborative work between education experts and survivors of the residential school system, including the use of artistic expressions. Further steps had included the training of teachers themselves, who needed to learn a historical narrative that they had not been taught at university, as well as health supports to ensure that teaching painful history did not have a counterproductive effect by creating further harm. 6