The Toledo Guiding Principles were developed by an inter-disciplinary team including members of the ODIHR Advisory Council of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief. The team comprised international human rights lawyers (including Professors Silvio Ferrari, Cole Durham and Malcolm Evans) educators (including Barry van Driel and Dr. Ulrike Wolff-Jontofsohn) and academics (including Professor Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Professor Robert Jackson and Dr Jeremy Gunn) from a cross section of religious and philosophical backgrounds, and gives close attention to legal issues in relation to freedom of religion or belief and education.

Aimed at both legislators and schools, they offer guidance on preparing curricula for teaching about religions and beliefs, preferred procedures for assuring fairness in the development of curricula, and standards for how they could be implemented.

They do not propose a curriculum for teaching about religions and beliefs, nor do they promote any particular approach to the teaching about religions and beliefs. They highlight procedures and practices concerning the training of those who implement such curricula, and the treatment of the pupils from many different faith backgrounds who may be the recipients of such teaching. The Guiding Principles do not seek merely to add a new set of directives to the long-standing OSCE acquis — principles and commitments — on freedom of religion or belief, tolerance and education. Rather, they aim to offer tools to implement them, translating these principles into concrete applications and offering examples of good practices.

The Guiding Principles are designed to assist not only educators but also legislators, teachers and officials in education ministries, as well as administrators and educators in private or religious schools to ensure that teaching about different religions and beliefs is carried out in a fair and balanced manner.

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