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United Nations Group of Experts
on Geographical Names
(UNGEGN)
Standardizing geographical names has both a national and an international aspect. Continuous efforts to standardize geographical names for international use are largely related to UN activity. The uniform use of names of localities and physiographic features is a fundamental element of world-wide communication. That was what the United Nations Organization had in mind when it established the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN).
The UNGEGN had its first meeting in New York in 1960. Consistent with the recommendations approved at that meeting and at the second in 1966, the United Nations Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC) passed a resolution on the need to introduce uniform geographical names in international traffic, a purpose which was to be fulfilled by so-called national gazetteers (formal list of geographical names for a given country).
The first UN Conference on Standardizing Geographical Names (Geneva, 1967) established the general directives for undertaking work in individual countries, divided the world into regional linguistic-geographical groups (so-called divisions), to enable implementing of the UN conference's recommendations.
Working groups are set up within the frame of the UNGEGN to implement special tasks. The following Working Groups are presently operating:
UNGEGN deals with preparing materials for deliberations and with implementing UN conference resolutions, meeting in session every 2 to 3 years.
Tasks of the UNGEGN
Important subjects of this international activity comprise:
- inspiring and supporting the activities of national official geographical names organs in each country
- supporting the creation of national collections of names and their publication in the form of gazetteers
- promoting the growth of national automatic IT systems of geographical name databases and international exchange of technology in this scope
- standardizing the spelling of all geographical names in the Roman writing system
- standardizing exonyms appearing in individual languages
- standardizing names of geographical features situated in regions deprived of national sovereignty
- training in toponymics
- unification of the terminology applied in standardization of geographical names
- inspiring cooperation between countries in standardizing names of borderland objects
- exchanging information between individual countries concerning geographical names
UN Conferences on Standardization of Geographical Names
One of the UNGEGN's principal tasks is preparing UN geographical names conferences and publishing their results. These conferences are held every 5 years on the grounds of decisions taken by the UN Economic and Social Council.
These conferences pass resolutions in the form of recommendations for the Council and UN members. Eight such conferences have been held since the first in Geneva in 1967: London (1972), Athens (1977), Geneva (1982), Montreal (1987), New York (1992,1998) and Berlin (2002).
Poland 's contribution to the work of UNGEGN
Poland participates in the work of and implements recommendations of the UN in the standardisation of geographical names from the very incept of international cooperation in that field. Poland belongs to regional division of UNGEGN - East Central and South-East Europe Division, in which Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey and Ukraine also participate, the latter four also belonging to other sections. Poland acted as the coordinator of our Regional UNGEGN Section between 1977 ad 1982, organising its various meetings. Between 1979 and 1982 Poland also participated in the work of the UNGEGN Working Group on Country Names. Poland also has observer status in the Eastern Europe, Northern and Central Asia Division.
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