The Arab Division of Experts on Geographical Names
Permanent Headquarter: The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan – Amman
Overview:
The Arab Division of Experts on Geographical Names composed of Arab Experts in Geographical Names assigned by their countries to collect, check, unify and process names of places and landmarks in all Arab countries, and it is part of (UNGEGN) affiliated to the Economic and Social Counsel (ECOSOC) which established the World Group of Experts on Geographical Names 1965, which organized 10 conferences and 28 courses tell now.
Meeting of the Arab Division of Experts on Geographical Names:
In Aug. 1971, a Conference for the Arab Division of Experts on Geographical Names was held in Beirut in which the Arab Group was formed under the name of “Arab Experts Group for Standardization the Names of Geographical Sites in Arab Countries”.
This meeting was held upon an invitation from the League of Arab Countries and organized by the Ministry of Culture in Lebanon, which was attended by Sixteen Arab countries. It was decided in this meeting to use a standard Arab System for transferring the geographical names from the Arab letters to Latin letters. This system was presented to the Social Economic Counsel in the United Nations to be approved and circulated to all concerned international organizations to be used as the only system in the world.
Accordingly, the United Nations issued in the 2nd Conference of World Experts for standardization Geographical Names held in London on 1972, issued its resolution and amendments called ” Beirut Amended Paper”.
Arab Countries faced difficulties in the application of (Beirut Amended System), then the United Nations recommended in the 7th Conference held in New York 1998, that the League of Arab countries should hold a meeting for the experts to overcome difficulties and offer solutions to the United Nations.
