PARTNERSHIPS
In its global endeavours, the Avalon Project collaborates with two prestigious entities: the Earth Charter Secretariat and the Scottish Storytelling Centre. But, at other levels, it also has relationships with organisations which have similar goals
Partnerships
In its work at a global, national, regional or local level, the Avalon Project operates in conjunction with multiple and diverse agents. However, at a global level, the characteristics of our efforts have led us to establish a close collaboration with an international entity and an artistic Scottish organisation: the Earth Charter Secretariat and the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
The Earth Charter Secretariat
The Earth Charter is the source of principles and values of the Avalon Project. The EC was issued on 29th June, 2000 at the Peace Palace in The Hague with the mission of establishing a solid ethical basis for the emerging global society and helping to create a sustainable world based on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice and a culture of peace.
“The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society in the 21st century. It seeks to inspire in all peoples a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well being of the human family and the larger living world. It is an expression of hope and a call to help create a global partnership at a critical juncture in history.”
Its development begun in 1987, at the request of the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development. Its principles are grounded in contemporary science, international law, the wisdom of the world’s great philosophical and religious traditions, declarations and reports of the 7 UN conferences of the 1990s, the worldwide ethical movement and a large number of governmental declarations and treaties of the peoples of the last 30 years.
The Earth Charter is the result of a process of intercultural conversations which lasted for more than 10 years. Throughout this time, its text was subjected to a process of international consultation, comment and debate by NGOs, community groups, professional societies and international experts from very different fields. Finally, it was reviewed and contrasted by thousands of people and hundreds of organisations around the world.
The Earth Charter Movement is driven by the Secretariat and Council of the Earth Charter International (ECI). The Secretariat, located in the University for Peace of the United Nations, in Costa Rica, “endeavours to promote the mission, vision, strategies, and policies adopted by the ECI Council”. The Secretariat directs and coordinates efforts for the dissemination of the Earth Charter throughout the world, especially in the field of education. On the other hand, it manages the communication lines with the global network of the Earth Charter Movement, and it promotes the use of the Charter as a soft law document, in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Scottish Storytelling Centre
It is a centre dedicated to preserving and telling myths, legends and folktales from Scotland, as well as preserving the tradition of storytelling, so popular among the Celtic peoples in their Céilidhs. The SSC is located on the Royal Mile of the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, and is a centre of dissemination of this Scottish cultural heritage, offering live performances of storytelling, theatre, dance and music, but also offering exhibitions and training programs in the ancestral art of telling stories.
The Scottish Storytelling Centre is the core and organising centre of the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, a great celebration which brings together, from 1989 and for two weeks, storytellers and keepers of the oral tradition from the most diverse cultures on our planet. These offer the legacy of their traditions seasoned with music, songs and ballads.
The Scottish Storytelling Centre will be the main responsible for bringing together and coordinating the “host” of storytellers from around the world with which it is intended to create the global network of storytelling activists, The Earth Story Tellers. They will be the main responsible for spreading the Earth Stories Collection which the Avalon Project will compile.
Get Involved
Credits
- Header picture: Fields of Glastonbury, by Javier Poveda, under license CC BY-NC-SA.
- “Mariri Yawanawá”, by Agência de Noticias do Acre, under license CC BY in Flickr.
- Composition of pictures, courtesy of the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
- “Manifestation anti G8 au Havre”, by Guillaume Paumier, under license CC BY, in Wikipedia.
- Dreams… by Ragesh Ev, under license CC BY-NC-SA, in Flickr.
- “flowerette”, by Porsche Brosseau, under license CC BY, in Flickr.
