The founders and directors, or allied heads of the Paulo Freire Institutes from various countries, meeting at Valencia, Spain from the 12^th to the 15^th of September, 2006, having considered the following:

1. the expansion of the Paulo Freire Institutes (PFIs), or allied institutions, committed to the reinvention of Paulo Freire’s ideas.;
2. the necessary linking of  PFIs spread over five continents.
3. the creation of the Universitas Paulo Freire (UNIFREIRE), at the international Paulo Freire Forum held in Bologna, Italy, in the year 2000.
4. the expressive insertion of the PFIs into contemporary social movements as well as their linking with other institutions and organizations, such as the World Social Forum and the World Education Forum which struggle toward the construction of what Paulo called “um outro mundo possível.”

Hereby Resolve:

First Article: To create a World Council of Paulo Freire Institutes (WCPFI) that, by this Charter, establishes its principles, structure, attributes and functions.

Second Article: The WCPFI will be the organ of the international deliberation and linkage( articulation) of the Paulo Freire Institutes, created or to be created in any country in the world, and will have the following principles:

1. To work for world dissemination (dimension) of Paulo Freire’s legacy.
2. To defend the right to be heard of the voice of the oppressed as political, gnostic and epistemological subjects.
3. To struggle, unconditionally, against any type of discrimination and for the inclusion of all the oppressed people in the world and for their right to enjoy the prerogatives of planetary citizenship.
4. To encourage linking( articulating) the PFIs to, and their interaction with, like-minded movements, institutions and organizations as allies in combating any type of oppression.
5. To establish the locale, the theme and the organizers of international meetings of the Paulo Freire Forum, always with their adequacy in terms of the Freirian referential in mind.

Third Article: The WCPFI is composed of:

1. the five founders of the PFI: Carlos Alberto Torres (Argentina/USA), Francisco Gutiérrez (Costa Rica), José Eustáquio Romão (Brazil), Moacir Gadotti (Brazil) and Walter Esteves Garcia (Brazil);
2. a director or similar officer of each of the Paulo Freire Institutes, as constituted and recognized by the WCPFI;
3. the coordinator of the UNIFREIRE.

Unique paragraph – Each representative of the PFI will have a ‘proxy’ representative to substitute for him or her in case of absences and impediments as well as acting as an advisor in meetings where the titular representative is present.

Fourth Article – The duties of the WCPFI are as follows:

1. to be responsible for Freirian declarations of world scope, such as  recognizing and/or revoking Paulo Freire Institutes.
2. to establish the policies linking (articulating) PFIs.
3. to advise and orient the PFIs regarding the interaction of the Freirian movement with other social movements as well as other institutions, organizations and programs, plans and projects of a world-wide nature.
4. to create a publication policy that enhances the circulation of Freirian ideas and actions, so that Paulo Freire’s legacy as implemented by the UNIFREIRE becomes more widely known.
5. to guarantee the celebration and coordination of international meetings and forums while respecting the autonomy of each PFI.
6. as a proposal from one or more institutes, to make our views felt about social and educational policies, analyzing their impact on the popular classes, proposing and developing however many actions we consider necessary.
7. to stimulate, promote and develop actions toward the creation of Paulo Frieire Institutes around the world, as well as participating in all events promoted by institutions and organizations with the goal of impelling democratic and liberating educational practices.
8. to stimulate and support educational, social and cooperative  projects of international scope and, specifically, to promote, cooperate and adhere to actions, initiatives and campaigns envisioning universal literacy.
9. Representar a todos los IPFs del mundo y desarrollar cuantas acciones internacionales se estimen necesarias para la promoción, divulgación y reinvención del pensamiento y la obra de Paulo Freire.
10. to evaluate, every two years, all the actions developed and to propose biennial action plans.

Fifth Article – The direction of the WCPFI’s decisions will be up to the coordinators of the UNIFREIRE and the council of each of the affected institutes, which will constitute its executive jurisdiction.

Sixth Article – The WCPFI will meet, ordinarily, every two years, at the time and place of the international Paulo Freire Forum meeting and, extraordinarily, whenever deemed necessary by its coordinating board.

Seventh Article – The WCPFI’s decisions will be made by consensus of the members present at these meetings.

Eighth Article – The WCPFI’s Permanent Secretariat is hereby created whose responsibility, in the interstices subsequent to every international Paulo Freire Forum meeting, will fall to the organizing institute, que realizará el seguimiento de todas las acciones de ámbito mundial realizadas por el CMIPF y los institutos.

Ninth Article – cases omitted here will be resolved by the WCPFI plenary.  This Charter becomes effective on the date of Paulo Freire’s 85^th birthday, 19 September 2006.

Valencia, 15 September 2006