He was one of the founding fathers of the Linguapax philosophy and had been awarded ex aequo the Linguapax Prize 2010. He was to receive this award during a delivery ceremony to be held at the Universitat de Barcelona next 21 May. The ceremony will take place as planned and will give us the occasion to pay tribute to one of our most outstanding scholars and pioneering activists for the promotion of multilingualism. Miquel Siguan's passing away represents a great loss for the international community of efforts in favour of multilingual education and culture and very sad news for the Linguapax family

The members of the Linguapax Advisory Board and the international network of delegations deeply regret the loss of Miquel Siguan.

Professor Siguan leaves us "a great tradition in the psychology of bilingualism, with applied research that helped open the way to the current Catalan model of language-in-education policy". "His considerable influence is evident in the high regard in which his writings and presentations on key policy issues were held".

His "immensa i generosa tasca en favor de l'entesa, el respecte i la convivència entre les persones de llengües diverses" "is influential not only among scholars but inspired interest in our discipline in present and surely future generations". "A remarkable scholar" but also "a great human being who has bypassed the anthitetic concepts of absoluteness and relativity". "A wise man in very sense - teacher, father, grandfather... his opinions were always meditated and well-reasoned"; "making sociolinguistic issues accessible to the non-academic".

Those who had the opportunity to meet him know that "era un placer conversar con él. Sabía como disfrutar y hacer disfrutar con su trabajo", because "la seva disponibilitat i la seva jovialitat no tenien límits. Era realment admirable que sempre sabés mantenir aquella energia i bon humor", that "éternel sourire".

For us he is "un exemple digne d' imitation pour la promotion sans discrimination des langues et cultures vivantes de tous les peuples". For this reason, even if we will miss him, "our consolation is that the legacy he leaves behind is so outstanding", "and hopefully we can build on this and indeed find an appropriate way to perpetuate his memory", "bring away his philosophy and transmit his message to the others".
We wish that "son sourire, son esprit et sa lucidité continuent à inspirer les actions de Linguapax"
"An irreparable loss to Linguapax community"; "we shall all miss him, immediately, and then every time we come together without him on things he cared about".

"He will always live among us through his work"

Although, unfortunately, he will not be at the Linguapax Award ceremony on 21 May, "it is wonderful that Prof. Siguan knew that his legacy to human rights and linguistics was acknowledged by all through the award", "which, in a sense, crowns his sterling efforts on behalf of linguistic human rights and multilingualism".

 

Alícia Fuentes-Calle (Cap del departament de diversitat lingüística - Linguapax, Centre UNESCO de Catalunya), Anvita Abbi (Center for Linguistics , School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India), Bartomeu Melià (Director de Lengua y Cultura Guarani, Centro de Estudios Paraguayos "Antonio Guasch", Asunción, Paraguay), Bernard Comrie (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany), Bjorn Jernudd (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Sigtuna, Sweden), Bosya Kornusova (Head of Delegation, Linguapax Eurasia, Associate Professor, Kalmyk University, Elista - Kalmykya, Russia), Carles Torner (Director de l'àrea de Literatura i Pensament , Institut Ramon Llull, Barcelona), Denis Cunningham (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Secretary General, Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de Langues Vivantes, Belgrave, Australia), Dónall Ó Riagáin (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Co. Chill Dara, Irlande/Ireland), Etienne Sadembouo (Head of Delegation, Linguapax Africa, Université de Yaoundé et centre ANACLAC, Cameroun), Fernand de Varennes (2004 Linguapax Laureate, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University, Australia) Frances Fister-Stoga (Head of Delegation, Linguapax Asia, Professor, University of Tokyo, Japan), François Grin (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, ETI, Université de Genève, Suisse), Ignace Sanwidi (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Consultant en Education et Culture de la Paix, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso), Irina Khaleeva (Rector of Moscow State, Linguistic University, Russia), Isidor Marí Mayans (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Director de la Catedra UOC-Linguamón, Barcelona, Catalunya), Jane Freeland (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Visiting Research Fellow, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom), Jean Jacques Van Vlasselaer (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Department of French, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada), José Antonio Flores Farfán (Head of Delegation, Linguapax América Latina, Professor of Linguistics, CIESAS , México D.F., México), Josep Cru (Linguapax Europa, School of Modern Languages, University of Newcastle, UK), Joseph Poth (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Gujan - Mestras, France), Joseph Sheils (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Head of Department of Language Education and Policy, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France), Fèlix Martí (President Honorari, Linguapax), Lachman Khubchandani (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Professor, Symbiosis International University, Pune, India), Luis Enrique López-Hurtado (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Director PACE, GTZ, Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala), Lluís Bernabé (Head of Delegation, Linguapax Pacific, Nouméa, Nouvelle-Calédonie), Malika Ahmed Zaid-Chertouk (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Professeur à la Faculté des Sciences Economiques et de Gestion, Université M. Mammeri de Tizi Ouzou, Algérie), Maya Khemlani David (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Staff of Faculty of Languages and Linguistic, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), Miquel Àngel Essomba (President Linguapax i director del Centre UNESCO de Catalunya), Miquel Strubell (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Chair in Multilinguism, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Catalunya), Neville Alexander (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Director of the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa, University of Cape Town, South Africa), Olenka Bilash (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Professor of Second Language Education, University of Alberta, Canada), Rosaleen Howard (Head of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, School of Modern Languages, Newcastle University, UK), Robert Phillipson (Linguapax Award 2010 Laureate, Professor Emeritus, Department of International Languages and Computational Linguistics, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark), Susana Cuevas (Linguapax Advisory Board Member, Profesor-Investigador, Dirección de Lingüística del INAH, México D.F., México), Tasaku Tsunoda (Department of Asian and Pacific Linguistics , Tokyo University, Japan) Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (Honorary President of Linguapax Advisory Board, The Vigdís Finnbogadóttir Institute of Foreign Languages, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland).