Committees

Most countries in the world were aware of the importance of geographical names for its past, present and future, so they paid it a great attention and most countries in the world has formed committees, leagues or societies to take care of these geographical names.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was one of the first Arab countries in this field. A Committee was formed to consider the geographical names in 1984 according to a resolution issued by the Prime Ministry. This Committee continued its work till 1986, the members were: Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Minister of Public Works, Minister of Culture and Youth, Director General/Department of Land & Survey, Director General of Royal Jordanian Geographic Centre and representative of every public Jordanian university (Jordan, Yarmouk, Mua’tah).

Duties:

Current names in Jordan and Palestine, highlight the civilized side of Jordan by applying the appropriate geographical names.
At the Prime Ministry Session dated 12/6/2000, it was decided to re-form the Committee to include specialists and representative of:Royal Jordanian Geographic Names, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Ministry of Public Works and Housing, Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Ministry of Education, Department of Land and Survey, The Jordan Academy of Arabic, Amman Greater Municipality, Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, Members of Private and Public sectors.

The permanent headquarter is in Royal Jordanian Geographic Centre. This Committee is entrusted all matters related with geographical names and can use any specialists in this field.
The Chairman of this Committee is the Director General of the Royal Jordanian Geographic Centre.

Duties of this Committee:
• Standardization the writing of geographical names in Jordan.
• Perpetuate and publish the Jordanian geographical names index.
• Writing to the Prime Ministry of the proposed and alternative geographical names been adopted, or in case of founding new names for places that already don’t have ones.
• Adopting the system of writing geographical names in Latin (Romanization) or foreign names in Arabic according to the approved system in the United Nations.
• Providing Information Bank for alternative of new geographical names that includes historic events, martyrs, political and literary figures which had played significant role in social life.
• Follow-up the updated matters in Arab countries and the world related with geographical names.
The communiqué No. 23 of 2001 issued by the Prime Ministry was circulated to all ministries, departments and public institutions.
Rules of Procedure (provisional) of the National Committee of Geographical Names in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan:
Definitions:
– Committee: The National Committee of Geographical Names.
– Geographical Name: Names of countries, streets, sites and geographic landmarks.
– Headquarter: Headquarter of the Committee/ Royal Jordanian Geographic Centre.
– Chairman: Chairman of the Committee of Geographical Names.
– Vice-Chairperson: Vice-Chairperson of the Committee of Geographical Names.
– Secretary: Secretary of the Committee of Geographical Names.

Current Members of the Committee:
– Brig. General Dr. Eng. Awni Moh’d Kasawneh/ Director General of RJGC/ Chairman of the Committee.
– Representative of the Ministry of Interior.
– Representatives of the Royal Jordanian Geographic Centre/ including the Secretary.
– Representative of The Jordan Academy of Arabic.
– Representative of Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities/ Department of Antiquities.
– Representative of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.
– Representative of the Department of Land and Survey.
– Representative of Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs.
– Representative of Amman Greater Municipality.
– Representative of Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority.
– Representative of the Private sector.
Chairman of the Committee:
Director General of Royal Jordanian Geographic Centre.
Duties of Chairman:
1- Supervise all works and activities of the Committee.
2- He is the president of the meetings held by the Committee.
Duties of Vice-Chairman:
1- He shall carry out all works assigned to him the Chairman.
2- He shall represent the Chairman in his absence.
Duties of the Secretary:
1- Writing down the meeting minutes of the Committee.
2- Supervise and organize the records.
3- Follow-up the implementation of the Committee decisions.
4- Arrange the Committee meetings.
Powers of the Committee:
1- Include the appropriate experts, specialists in both private and public sectors.
2- Ask to cancel or stop using any new names until it been approved by the Committee.
3- Publish articles, researches, studies, books, specialized magazines, convening conferences and exhibitions; use all means of media to disseminate awareness of the committee duties and works in the field of geographical names.
4- Carry out field and research studies.
5- Recommend to include new members (foundations or individuals) or replace working members with others upon the approval of the Prime Ministry.
Working Mechanism:
1- The Committee shall consider in the regular or urgent meetings, the applications about changing geographic names or give new names.
2- The Committee shall choose the proposed new names depending on the principles approved by the Committee.
3-The Committee shall submit the proposed new names to the Prime Ministry to take the appropriate procedures according to its regulations and rules.
General principles of new names:
1- It shouldn’t be repeated.
2- It shouldn’t affect the national, religious or public feelings.
3- It shouldn’t reflect political, ethnic, religious or tribal sensitivity.
4- It shouldn’t be related with a name of tribe, person, or family incompatible with the Committee duties.
5- It should be related with the history and culture of Jordan as well as both the Arab and Islamic world.
6- When certain names are decided for specific sites, the Committee had to take into consideration the following: consulting the people in the area, agree with them as much as possible about the new name provided it shouldn’t contradict with principles approved by the Committee.
7- Identify the geographic status of the site.
8- Fix the appropriate syllable of the name if it includes more than one syllable.
9- The Committee shall refer to the Geographical Names Information Bank to choose the appropriate name.
10- Letters of the name should be fluent.
11- Structure of the name should be fluent.
Meetings of the Committee:
1- The Committee convenes periodically once every month, urgent meetings are held upon necessity.
2- The meeting is considered legal if half of the members plus one attended including the Chairman or the Vice-Chairman.
3- Decisions are approved by voting.
4- Meetings are held at the Headquarter, or any other place according to the nature of the meeting.