Introduction   

Family and education play a decisive role in promoting RM identity. For this reason, these two policy areas were selected and placed at the center of the ReMinEm and MiReDiaDe projects.

Religion has historically been a major factor determining the definition of marriage and family. The legal regulations and social norms within each state regarding this area are typically influenced by the majority’s religious traditions. This influence has affected and still affects RMs, where their specific notions differ from the majority’s one. Marriage and family are considered intrinsically linked. This explains why they are treated jointly within this policy area. Internally, however, it is divided into two parts: the first is devoted to the celebration and dissolution of marriage, and the second to the relations between spouses and between parents and children. 

The policy area education is divided into two sections, one dedicated to public schools and the other to faith-based private schools. Public schools are schools “whose organisation, financing and management are primarily the responsibility of, or under the primary oversight of, a public body (state, regional, municipal, etc.)”  (ODIHR Advisory Council of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Toledo Guiding Principles on Teaching about Religions and Beliefs in Public Schools, Warsaw, OSCE/ODIHR, 2007, p. 20). Private schools are those that are “not operated by a public authority but controlled and managed, whether for profit or not, by a private body (e.g. non-governmental organization, religious body, special interest group, foundation or business enterprise)” (UNESCO, Global Education Monitoring Report 2021/2: Non-state actors in education: Who chooses? Who loses?, Paris, UNESCO, 2021, p. 33). Some of these private schools provide an education based on the principles of a particular religion: here they are called “faith-based private schools”.

 

 

 

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