Linguapax Institute

Linguapax Institute
Linguapax is a non-governmental organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of linguistic diversity worldwide. Its main aim, synthesized in its name, is to rally linguistic communities worldwide around the belief that the maintenance of language diversity is inseparable from the goals of peace and intercultural understanding. Linguapax emerged from a UNESCO experts meeting in 1987 which was followed up by a series of workshops and international meetings focused on the promotion of multilingual education. In the year 2001, coinciding with a growing awareness of the loss of the world's linguistic heritage, the UNESCO Center of Catalonia decided to continue the project, to give it an own structure and establish its headquarters in Barcelona. On 21st February 2006, on the occasion of the celebration of the International Mother Language Day, Linguapax officially established the International Network by signing a framework agreement that establishes the terms of collaboration for the different delegations. The representatives of each delegation agree on uniting their forces in order to promote the ideals of Linguapax by the means of projects concerning the revitalization and documentation of threatened languages, the investigation on intercultural and multilingual education, the formation of teachers and the elaboration of teaching materials about non-dominating languages and cultures. The headquarters of Linguapax in Barcelona is coordinating and supervising the international network in function of its necessities and possibilities and the priorities of the delegations. Up to date, Linguapax has increased its international activities and has developed exchanges and cooperation projects with other organizations which share their interest in promoting linguistic diversity in other regions of the world.

Apart from the headquarters in Barcelona, an interactive network of organisations from different continents has been established with the aim of reinforcing its international presence. The first of these delegations that had been created was Linguapax-Asia, established at the heart of the University of Tokyo in 2003. Currently Linguapax has delegations in Africa, North America, Latin America, Asia, Europe and in the Pacific:


 * Linguapax Africa with its seat at the ANACLAC Centre of Applied Linguistics, in Cameroon and with regional coordinators in Nigeria, South Africa, Chad, Senegal, Tanzania and Algeria Linguapax


 * Latin America with its seat at the Centre of Research and Social Anthropology Studies (CIESAS - Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social), in Mexico


 * Linguapax North America with its seat at the University of Alberta, Canada


 * Linguapax Asia with its seat at the University of Tokyo, Japan and with other representations in Malaysia and India


 * Linguapax Europe in Kalmykia (Eurasia), Slovenia, Germany and at the UNESCOEtxea, Basque Country


 * Linguapax Pacific in New Caledonia and Australia

The basic structure of Linguapax consists of a board, the delegations and an advisory board composed of renowned experts coming from the whole world. In order to address the different society actors, Linguapax develops activities along the following major lines:


 * Giving advice on language policy and planning issues to state and sub-state actors


 * Collaboration in language revitalization


 * The promotion of multilingual education and the elaboration of teaching materials advocating the values of linguistic and cultural diversity


 * The organization of congresses, seminars and workshops

In addition to that, Linguapax is realizing an important work in the diffusion of information related to linguistic diversity on a global level. Finally, Linguapax delivers yearly the International Linguapax Award (Linguapax Prize) to linguists, researchers, professors or members of the civil society as a tribute to their outstanding work in the field of linguistic diversity and multilingual education.

Links for Linguapax
Linguapax website