Conferences

The 5th Arab Conference of Experts on Geographical Names was held in Beirut during the period 26-29 May 2010 upon an invitation from the League of Arab Countries sent by Diplomatic ways to all Arab countries.

Representative of 15 Arab countries attended this Conference (Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunis, Libya, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Palestine, Oman and Jordan) in addition to two representatives of the League of Arab Countries (Ambassador abdel Rahman Alsolh and Mr. Moh’d Al Khatib).
Themes of the Conference:
• Application of a Standardized Arab System.
• Establishing a national commission for geographical names in every country.
• Adopting standardized roles for names in every country.
• Organizing tables of Arab Sites Names.
• Publishing names in dictionaries, atlases and maps.
• Writing names on banners of cities, towns, streets, and geographical places in general.
• Preserving the cultural heritage.
• Holding meetings of working groups of the Division.
• Electing a new Governing Board of the Arab Division.

Upon an invitation from the Arab Center for Legal and Judicial Researches affiliated to the Arab League, the Arab Division of Experts on Geographical Names and the Lebanese Army Leadership- Department of Geographical Affairs, Heads of Geographical institutions and Geographical names and experts, held the 4th Arab Conference on Geographical Names 2008 in Beirut.

This Conference aimed to the following:
1. Discussing the standardized Arab System and the development of writing geographical names in Arab countries.
2. The effect of Arab dialects and pronouncing geographical names in Roman letters on this system (searching in exotic names from western languages).
3. Showing the activities of the Arab countries in the field of standardization of geographical names, developing idioms and processing its writing, and laying down a mechanism for building the standardized Arab dictionaries (paper & electronic), based on data bases and Geographic Information System (GIS).
4. Studying establishing automatic program for transforming geographical names from Arabic letters to Latin in order to establish the Standardized Arab Atlas for writing geographical names on maps by modern methods.
the Conference also discussed ways of Arab cooperation in fields of standardization geographical names, application of Beirut System, Arab and international resolutions in the field of geographical names, developing the web site of the Arab Division (www.adgn.net.), and choosing a permanent headquarter for the Arab Division in the League of Arab Countries building in Beirut.
At the final session headed by his Excellency Ambassador Abdel Rahman Alsolh, representative of the General Secretary of the League of Arab Countries, the Conference issued the following recommendations included the League of Arab Countries, General Secretariat of ESCWA, and the Arab Governments:
1- The League of Arab Countries:
• Circulating the standardized Arab System for transforming geographical names to all member states and urged them to apply this system in writing geographical names in Latin letters on maps, and submit notices – if there is any- to the General Secretariat of the League of Arab Countries within 6 months of receiving the system.
• Addressing a letter to Economic and Social Counsel of United Nations included the recommendations of the 4th Arab Conference on Geographical Names, and asking that this system should be adopted by all relevant international organizations.
• Paying needed attention to the standardization of geographical names by all Arab countries and urged them to work on within the elected Arab Commission and its committees, in order to issue the Standardized Arab Dictionary on Geographical Names.
• Assuring the membership of all Arab countries in the Division.
• Working on issuing the approval of choosing the Headquarter of the League of Arab Countries in Beirut to be the permanent site of the Division.
2- General Secretariat of ESCWA:
• Submitting the final report of the 4th Conference to the General Secretariat of UNESC to be referred to the UN group of Experts on Geographical Names.
• Suggesting suitable mechanisms for cooperation and coordination with the Governing Board of the Arab Division of Experts on Geographical Names -ADEGN.
• Coordinating with Governing Board of the Arab Division regarding conferences and sessions held by its committees.
3- Arab Governments:
• Adopting the system issued by the 3rd Arab Conference of Geographical Names held in Beirut 2007, to be used as a standardized system in all Arab countries to transfer geographical names from Arab to Latin.
• Sending all notes about this system – if existed- to the General Secretariat of the League of Arab Countries- ESCWA.
• Issuing new dictionaries, maps and atlases, and updating old ones according to the rules of the new system.
• Circulating this system on schools, universities, public and private institutions.
• Establishing a permanent national commission for geographical names in every country specialized in collecting, standardizing, preserving and using geographical names aiming to be a standard reference.
• Collecting geographical names in lists to be submitted to the cultural department in the League of Arab Countries.

The Arab Division, Heads of Geographical Institutes, Heads and Experts of Geographical Names held the 3rd Arab Conference on Geographical Names during the period 30-31 May, 2007 upon an invitation from the Lebanese Army Leadership- Department of Geographical Affairs.
The delegations of the following Arab countries attended the Conference: Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Morocco, Algeria, Palestine and Qatar, in which many subjects were discussed such as: the Division organization, the meetings schedule and election of General Board, seven working committees and work teams.
During the 9th Conference on Standardization Geographical Names held in the United Nations Building in New York on 2007, the participated Arab delegations decided to assign the representative of Lebanon (the Head of the 3rd Conference on Standardization Geographical Names) for the preparation of the 4th Conference on Standardization Geographical Names during 2008.
The Conference aimed to discuss difficulties caused by the application of Standardized Arab System and conducting suitable amendments in order to:
1. Overcome difficulties encountered foundations in the field of geographical names in some Arab countries.
2. Solve problems caused by pronunciation of some Arabic letters in different way from its original one in some Arab countries.
3. Pronounce some Arab names in local dialect used in some Arab countries by different ethnicities.
4. Make the necessary adjustments on the system and to be approved in its final version.
Also the Conference aimed to activate the joint Arab work in the following fields:
a. Standardization of Arab Geographical Names.
b. Building the Standardized Arab Dictionary of Arab Geographical Names.
c. Maintaining the Arab Geographical Names as an unalterable and non-fading Arab Cultural legacy.
d. Organizing education workshops and experience exchange in the field of geographical names and information.
e. Implementation of Arab and International resolutions related to collecting, adjusting and standardizing geographical names.

Following the recommendations of the Arab Division in the United Nations Experts Team of Standardization of Geographical Names, and upon an invitation from the Survey Department in Libya

, and confirmation that the standardized and exact use of geographical names is considered one of the basic elements in active communication on Arab and international levels supporting the social and economic development, the 1st Arab Conference on Geographical Names was held in Tripoli/Libya during the period 18-20, Aug., 2004. This Conference aimed to standardization the system and techniques of writing geographical names in Arab World in produced maps, atlases and geographical names lists, in order to reach a correct dealing of geographical names in all kinds of media on international and Arab levels. This conference was attended by delegations of the following Arab countries: Libya, Morocco, Tunis, United Arab Emirates, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan and Algeria.

The first Conference on Geographical Names of the Arab Division was held in Beirut during the period 23-31

, Aug. 1971. Delegations of the following Arab countries attended the Conference: Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Palestine.