Standardization of Geographical Names Matters
The 2019 Session of the “new” United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) will be convened from 29 April to 3 May 2019 at the UNHQ, conference room 2, in New York. The session, organized by the United Nations Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, brings together over 150 experts from national naming authorities and academia to discuss strategies and methodologies by which the standardization of geographical names throughout the world can be advanced for the benefit of all citizens, Governments and non-governmental organizations.
Objectives
The Session aims to increase awareness of geographical names standardization, share the benefits that names provide to the daily functions in national economies and highlight its role as an enabler in preserving cultural heritage. It is hoped that delegates will be further empowered to strengthen their efforts to collect, manage and disseminate geographical names and forge partnerships and alliances to advance geographical names standardizations.
New Group of Experts
The Group of Experts has had a robust work programme spanning over 50 years, 30 sessions and 11 conferences and many significant milestones. In November 2017 as per ECOSOC resolution 2018/2, the group was dismantled and recreated with the same name and new working methods. The 2019 session therefore heralds the first session of the new body, with a new agenda and over 90 papers for information and discussion, covering topics such as toponymic training, place names supporting sustainable development, toponymic data files and gazetteers, romanization systems, exonyms, geographical names as cultural heritage, and toponymic guidelines for map and other editors for international use. In keeping with its new standing the group will be formally launching its new website and a prototype of the world geographical names database web GIS application.
Other Activities
The week’s activities include special guest presentations, side events featuring working group and divisional meetings, an orientation session for new attendees and special workshops on “Linked Data Developments” and “The Unanswered Questions Relation to Indigenous Toponymy”. For more information on the session and session documents go to https://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/UNGEGN/1st_session_UNGEGN.html
The meetings will be streamed on UNTV at http://webtv.un.org/
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