2026 National Education Competition Winners Announced

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We are proud to announce the winners of this year’s Beyond Srebrenica National Schools Competition.

  • Juwayrieh, S1 – Junior, Aberdeen Grammar School
  • Olivia, S5 – Senior, Robert Gordon’s College
  • Ruairidh, S5 – Senior, Bishopbriggs Academy

Runners up:

  • Cameron, S2 – Senior, Aberdeen Grammar School
  • Christina, S2 – Senior, Aberdeen Grammar School
  • Oran, S5 – Senior, Robert Gordon’s College
  • Amelie, S5 Senior, Robert Gordon’s College

Open to secondary-aged pupils across Scotland, the competition invited young people to engage with the theme of ‘justice’ and to explore how we remember and respond to the Srebrenica genocide.
The standard of submissions this year has been truly inspiring, as you can see from these examples. Each entry demonstrated thoughtfulness, empathy, and a deep commitment to learning from the past.
Congratulations to all of our winners and runners up. You give us hope that the next generation is not only learning the lessons of Srebrenica but is determined to carry them forward with courage and compassion.

Sabina Kadić-Mackenzie, Chair of Beyond Srebrenica, shared:

“Your work is a testament to the determination of you generation to create a better world. Through your creativity and reflection, you honour those who were killed and displaced during the Bosnian war and remind us all why remembrance matters. We are equally grateful to your schools and communities, whose support helps nurture such powerful voices for justice and understanding.”


Thank you to everyone who took part, and to the teachers and practitioners who continue to support our work. A special thanks goes out to our judges from the Beyond Srebrenica Education Advisory Group.

Check out the entries:

Winners:

"Justice after Srebrenica means more than just giving those who were responsible what they deserve. It also means recognizing the truth about what happened and making sure ir is not easily dismissed or forgotten."
S1 (BGE) Juwayrieh, Aberdeen Grammar School
Senior, Ruaridh, Bishopbriggs Academy
What is justice? "Denial represents a second layer of injustice. It is not enough that lives were taken on such a devastating scale, the refusal to recognise this suffering further undermines any sense of justice. Without truth and acknowledgement, accountability remains incomplete. Justice, therefore, must go beyond punishment. It requires recognition, honesty and collective acceptance of the past. Without these, reconciliation becomes impossible. The continued distortion of events forced those affected to exist in a space where their experiences are questioned or dismissed, prolonging the impact of the original act. Justice cannot exist where the truth itself is still contested, and until there is widespread acceptance of what happened in Srebrenica, any claim that justice has been achieved remains fundamentally flawed. What is justice? "Denial represents a second layer of injustice. It is not enough that lives were taken on such a devastating scale, the refusal to recognise this suffering further undermines any sense of justice. Without truth and acknowledgement, accountability remains incomplete. Justice, therefore, must go beyond punishment. It requires recognition, honesty and collective acceptance of the past. Without these, reconciliation becomes impossible. The continued distortion of events forced those affected to exist in a space where their experiences are questioned or dismissed, prolonging the impact of the original act. Justice cannot exist where the truth itself is still contested, and until there is widespread acceptance of what happened in Srebrenica, any claim that justice has been achieved remains fundamentally flawed. What is justice? "Denial represents a second layer of injustice. It is not enough that lives were taken on such a devastating scale, the refusal to recognise this suffering further undermines any sense of justice. Without truth and acknowledgement, accountability remains incomplete. Justice, therefore, must go beyond punishment. It requires recognition, honesty and collective acceptance of the past. Without these, reconciliation becomes impossible. The continued distortion of events forced those affected to exist in a space where their experiences are questioned or dismissed, prolonging the impact of the original act. Justice cannot exist where the truth itself is still contested, and until there is widespread acceptance of what happened in Srebrenica, any claim that justice has been achieved remains fundamentally flawed.
Senior, Olivia, Robert Gordon’s College

Runners up:

BGE (S1), Sophia, St Mungo’s High School
BGE (S2), Cameron, Aberdeen Grammar School
I have learned about the horrific events of the Second World War and the Holocaust in such excruciating detail, to the point that I feel physically ill... so then why, I began to ask myself, do I not expierience the same unpleasant physical reaction when I hear the name "Srebrenica. That doesn't seem right. That's not fair. That's not justice. Why does one genocide instantly bring quiet to a room, yet the other could just drift right through it, without a single person's ear picking it up. The Srebrenica genocide is so under discussed, under thought about, and most importantly, under educated. The lessons that can be learned from such an event, around acceptance and tolerance, are integral to creating a world that will never allow anything like this to happen again. The lessons we all thought that we'd learned after 1945.
Senior, Oran, Robert Gordon’s College
Senior, Amélie, Robert Gordon’s College