<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, the author presents the historical background of the ongoing international cooperation on the unification of toponyms on a global scale. The 1967 conference in Geneva was extremely important in defining the objectives and tasks of the cooperation, setting out the main areas of action (national standardization, geographical terms, spelling systems, international exchange of information) and, through the resolutions adopted at the time, formulating detailed guidelines for standardization procedures. In the past half-century, the global organising of geographic nomenclature – although still incomplete – has gained a universally accepted institutional framework and has produced the expected results. The UNGEGN (United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names) plays a major role in organising the cyclical conferences, sessions, regional division and working group meetings, and toponymy courses, as well as inspiring the creation of unified databases and publications.</p></abstract>

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, the author presents the historical background of the ongoing international cooperation on the unification of toponyms on a global scale. The 1967 conference in Geneva was extremely important in defining the objectives and tasks of the cooperation, setting out the main areas of action (national standardization, geographical terms, spelling systems, international exchange of information) and, through the resolutions adopted at the time, formulating detailed guidelines for standardization procedures. In the past half-century, the global organising of geographic nomenclature – although still incomplete – has gained a universally accepted institutional framework and has produced the expected results. The UNGEGN (United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names) plays a major role in organising the cyclical conferences, sessions, regional division and working group meetings, and toponymy courses, as well as inspiring the creation of unified databases and publications.

The fiftieth anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names

Polish Cartographical Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names, the author presents the...

The fiftieth anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names

Published Online: Dec 30, 2017

Page range: 135 - 146

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/pcr-2017-0010

Keywords
toponyms, international standardization, UNGEGN

© 2017 Ewa Wolnicz-Pawłowska, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The fiftieth anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names

Published Online: Dec 30, 2017

Page range: 135 - 146

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/pcr-2017-0010

Keywordstoponyms, international standardization, UNGEGN

© 2017 Ewa Wolnicz-Pawłowska, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
toponyms, international standardization, UNGEGN