Fourth Arab Conference on Geographical names

Beirut from the 16^th till the 22^nd of June 2008

Final report of

The Arab conference on geographical names

First: the execution of the Agenda:

1. The heads of the geographical institutions and the leaders of the Geographical names’ committees and experts held a conference in Monroe hotel in Beirut from the 16^th till the 22^nd of June 2008, upon the invitation of the Arab center of Judicial and law researches of the Arab league and also upon the invitation of the Arab division of experts on geographical names.
2. Delegations from the below mentioned Arab countries participated in the meeting:

The Lebanese Republic, The Hashemite Kingdome of Jordan, Kingdome of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Popular Democratic Republic of Algeria, Tunisia, The Republic of Soudan, The Republic Of Iraq, The Arab Republic of Egypt in addition to a delegation from the Arab league. The names of the participants are to be found in (annex number 1).

3. The opening ceremony held under the patronage of the President of the Lebanese Republic General Michel Suleiman represented by the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense Mr. Elias El Murr, the Speaker of the Parliament Mr. Nabih Berri represented by the deputy Yassine Jaber, the Prime Minister Fouad siniora represented by the minister of the administrative development’s affairs Jean Ogasapian, and a number of deputies, heads and members of the parliamentary committees linked to the issue of Geographical information and affairs, the ministers and the directors of the ministries, the ambassadors of the Arab States or their representatives, the two syndicates of Engineers in Beirut the  Licensed topographers and the Arab Union pf topography, the directors and teachers of the national, official or private schools, the private companies working in the field of the geographical information, the heads of the Unions of municipalities in all the Lebanese regions and some heads of municipalities in the main cities participating in the conference (annex number 2).
4. During the opening ceremony, statements were pronounced by:

The vice president of the Arab committee on geographical names Dr. Seif El Kadri (UAE), the vice president of the world Group of experts of geographical names General Ibrahim Atwi (Algeria), the president of the conference Brigadier General Maroun Khraish (Lebanon), the representative of the Secretary General of the Arab league ambassador Abdul Rahman El solh and the deputy Prime minister and the minister of defense Mr. Elias El Murr representing his Excellency the president of the Lebanese republic General Michel Suleiman.

5.   The above mentioned persons insisted on the importance of unifying and standardizing the Arab geographical names due to its historical, religious, social, cultural and economic importance. They also insisted on the necessity of adopting a unified Arab system to transliterate the Arab geographical names from the Arabic letters to the Latin letters, before adopting and implementing it on the level of the Arab group.
6. After the opening ceremony a cocktail was organized for the attendees when they had the chance also to visit the exhibition held on the occasion of the conference (annex 3).
7. The conference started at 11:00 am on Monday the 16^th of June 2008, the work was divided into various sessions:

(1)    – adopting the agenda and making sure that the documents and reports related to the activities of the Arab countries in the field of geographical names are all available.

The session was headed by Dr. Seif El Kaydi (UAE) assisted by Muhammad El Ruchd (KSA) and Ibrahim El jabber (Jordan).

During this session the attendees adopted the agenda and introduced simple modifications (adding an intervention on SALB project on Wednesday the 18^th of June 2008). Afterwards, Brigadier General Maroun Khraish presented a general overview of the subjects to be raised during the conference. Dr. Seif El Kaydi the vice president of the division read the report of the Arab division on Geographical Names. Then the lectures were presented as follow:

(a)    – Ibrahim al Jaber (Jordan): the founder of the system of the Arab division of Geographical names. A committee formed to study the proposal included the following members: Ibrahim Al Jaber (Jordan), First Lieutenant Engineer Chaker El Hajj (Lebanon), General Manii Ali Khalifi (KSA), Ibrahim Atwi )(Algeria), Mr. Said Al Boromi (Arab League).

(b)   Brigadier General Maroun Khraish (Lebanon): Lebanon’s report on the activities related to geographical names.

(c)    General Ali Mabrouk (Tunisia): Tunisia’s report concerning the progress made on the level of geographical names.

(d)   Muhammad Saad Al Chahrani (KSA): the geographical names and the importance of registering them on the national level.

(e)   Saad Saoud Al Azimi (Kuwait): the project of unifying the geographical names in Kuwait.

During the session, discussions and interventions were made regarding the relation with the UNGEGN and regarding the issue of organizing training sessions for experts and the necessity of preserving the original language without any change.

(2)    The second session:  the systems implemented in every country and the difference between them and the 2007 Beirut’s system.

The session was chaired by Dr. Omar Charif (Egypt) with the assistance of Muhammad Saad El Chahrani (KSA) and Mr. Ibrahim Al Jaber (Jordan).

During the session the following lectures were presented:

(a)    – The systems implemented in the Arab countries (Brigadier General Maroun Khraish - Lebanon).

(b)   The Romanization system implemented in Lebanon (Brigadier General Maroun Khraish – Lebanon).

(c)    The main activities in Jordan on the level of geographical names (Ibrahim Al Jaber – Jordan).

(d)   Qatar’s paper to the fourth conference on geographical names (Youssef Issa Ibrahim – Qatar).

(3)      The third session: the effect of the Arab dialects on the development of geographical names.

The session was headed by Dr. Ibrahim Atwi (Algeria) assisted by Abdullah Al Ghayhab (KSA) and Mr. Ibrahim Al Jaber (Jordan).

Dr. Ibrahim Atwi introduced the session and presented some information about the dialects and the languages where there are 68 languages in the United Nations written in an alphabet which does not use the Latin letters, afterwards he presented the following lectures:

(a)    – The effect of the Lebanese dialects on the way of writing the geographical names in the Arab alphabet with Latin letters (Brigadier General Maroun Khraish – Lebanon). Then, an intervention was made by Dr. Omar Chareef about the dialects and their effects on the way of writing.

(b)   Writing the Geographical names in the Sudan Arabic script (Al Amin Muhammad Abu Manka – Soudan), followed by a discussion on the names in Soudan and the written languages used by the local population.

(4)    The fourth session:  pronunciation of the geographical names in the Arab alphabets and in the Latin alphabets.

The session was headed by Lieutenant General Muhammad Khalifeh (Jordan) assisted by Ali Kaout (Qatar) and Mr. Talal Mefleh (Jordan).

At the beginning of the session Mr. Khalifeh Presented Brigadier General Khraish and clarified that a lecture will be presented and will be followed by a discussion.

Brigadier General Maroun Khraish welcomed the Arabs participating in this conference then the following lectures were presented:

(a)    – Pronunciation of the Arab letters and the equivalent Latin letters in the transliteration alphabet (Brigadier General Maroun Khraish - Lebanon).

Lieutenant General Khalifeh thanked Brigadier General Maroun Khraish for his interesting lecture and opened the floor to discussion. Brigadier General Khraish reminded the participants of the decision of Beirut’s conference in 1971 concerning the way of writing geographical names in the Arabic literature language. He also suggested the declaration of the Arab countries’ engagement in the division‘s membership.

(5)     -  The fifth session: discussing the suggestions and the remarks of the Arab experts on Beirut System.

The session was presided by Brigadier General Maroun Khraish (Lebanon) assisted by Mr. Saad Al Sooud Al Azimi (Kuwait) and Engineer Ibrahim Hasanen (Soudan).

The following lectures were presented:

(a)    – Remarks on the unified Arab System to transliterate the geographical names from the Arab alphabet to the Latin alphabet – (Dr. Talal Wehbi – Lebanon).

(b)   Remarks on the implemented rules of Beirut system 2007 (Brigadier General Maroun Khraish).

This was followed by some discussions on the system, a committee was formed to study the modifications of the system upon the suggestions of Mr. Ibrahim Al Jaber (Jordan) made of:

-          Brigadier General Maroun Khraish – Lebanon.

-          Ibrahim Al Jaber Obeid – Jordan

-          Captain Najeeb Al wazee – Tunisia

-          Captain Ibrahim Atwi – Algeria

-          Muhammad Al Chahrani – KSA

Afterwards the report of the committee formed during the first session was presented to study the system and the structure of the committee; it was decided to modify the suggestions mentioned in it.

(6)    The sixth session: presenting the work of the committees.

The session was headed by General Manii Ali Khalifeh (KSA) assisted by Noaimeh Fraiha (Tunisia) and Major Salim Abdullah Al Chami (UAE).

Brigadier General Maroun Khraish suggested modifying the subject of the session to continue the discussion on the level of the division’s System, the attendees approved and BG. Khraish asked if it is enough to send the results of the conference to the Arab League so that it will send it to the United Nations, Dr. Said Al Boromi from the Arab League replied that it is necessary for the Arab League to approve on these suggestions. Afterwards, Mr. Muhammad Al Chahrani (KSA) said that it is very important to present an overview of the situation of the Arab division and a list including the names of countries participating in the Arab and International conferences and requested the Arab League to adopt the System.

It was agreed to postpone the discussion of the internal regulations of the division to further meetings and conferences and to continue the work with the current system until modifying it.

(7)    The Seventh session: discussing the committees and the website.

The session was presided by Dr. Seif El Kaydi (UAE) assisted by Muhammad Ahmad El Rached (KSA) and Hameed Okassi (Algeria).

The president opened the session and spoke about the situation of the committees and how difficult it is to meet its members for several reasons, one of them is that the countries that are nominated for the membership of the committee did not appoint their geographical experts yet. Moreover, the president raised the issue of not notifying all the experts of geographical names in some Arab countries of the developments occurring in the division, due to the lack of their addresses. It was also mentioned that it was very difficult for these committees to have a meeting because of the lack of financial support. The president suggested sending the invitations of the upcoming conferences by the Arab League to the ministries of foreign affairs in the Arab countries to notify them of the date of these conferences after receiving the relevant information from the Arab division; the latter will send special invitations to the Arab experts which names are registered in order to tell them about the dates of the conferences.

Captain Abdullah Rihani who is also an engineer (Lebanon), spoke about the website of the Arab division on the internet and mentioned all the details of the pages which include the historical background of the division, the regional and international resolutions related to the geographical names and its importance in addition to some information about the committees and its members.

The president of this session praised the efforts done to create the website and spoke about the procedures of its creation saying that it was a dream becoming true, after it was decided in Libya to task the UAE to create the website but this did not happen. Moreover, and during the third conference KSA suggested to be responsible of this issue but this was not executed due to some administrative reasons, that is why it was implemented by the directorate of geographical affairs of the Lebanese army.

The Saudi delegation paid tribute to the efforts done to make this website a real success and suggested that during the upcoming conferences the attendees will be able to register their names through the website where they can use the methods of payments used on the internet to do so.

The president of the conference suggested discussing the realization of this issue through the financial committee elected in 2007. 

The Saudi delegation suggested that it is possible to create a mechanical program of Romanization on the website. Afterwards, Captain Ibrahim Atwi (Algeria) commented positively on the work done until now and suggested the following:

(a)    – enriching the website through putting documents related to the geographical names such as the IGN system of the Arab Maghreb.

(b)    - Putting links of other website relevant to this one.

(c)    - Preparing a work paper about the website of the Arab division and explaining it in order to be presented in the meeting of the UNGEGN which will be held in Nairobi Kenya in 2009.

The president of the conference reminded the attendees that from now on every Arab expert will be able to send a comment or a research on the website after approving on it.

The Qatari delegation spoke about the website related to Qatar only www.gisqatar.org.qa which has important geographical information about Qatar including the geographical names and its explanation and how to pronounce it in addition to a picture of the geographical position.

First lieutenant engineer Chaker El Hajj (Lebanon) presented the other committees and spoke about the establishment of a committee to unify the terminology of the standardization of geographical names. Dr. Omar Chareef said that the work of the morphology experts is combined with the work of this committee in a wider concept. That is when the president of the session Dr. Deif El Kaydi intervened and suggested that the committee itself will present a suggestion concerning this committee in the upcoming conference.

The attendees discussed also the issue of the Exonyms. Captain Ibrahim Atwi asked about the nature of the Exonyms, and Brigadier General Maroun Khraish said that there is a difference between the names of the countries and the other names and that within the UNGEGN there is a committee responsible of the names of the countries. Dr. Omar Chareef noted that some English names are translated into Arabic. Dr. Seif Al kaydi suggested that the relevant committee presents a proposal to be discussed in the upcoming conference, at that time Mr. Ibrahim Al Jaber suggested to ask all the committees to present recommendations and suggestions related to its tasks to be discussed in the upcoming conferences.

The attendees decided to modify the agenda of the committees to be as figured below. Some of the countries participating in the conference nominated their members in these committees, as mentioned below: 

(8)    – The eighth session: glossaries and terms.

The session was headed by Youssef Issa Ibrahim (Qatar) assisted by Muhammad Saad Al Chahrani (KSA) and Al Amin Bou Manka (Soudan).

During the session the following lectures were presented:

(a)    – The public names in the composed geographical names prepared by Ibrahim Al Zokrti (Jordan) and presented by Abdullah Mefleh (Jordan).

(b)   The geographical names on the website www.gisqatar.org.qa – Youssef Issa Ibrahim (Qatar).

(c)    A Tunisian Typonymic database as a subset of the topographic database – Noiameh Frayha (Tunisia).

During the session, the Arab experts praised the efforts done by Dr. Ibrahim Al Zokrti and his experience in the field of geographical names.  

(9)    – The ninth session: creating the glossary of geographical names.

The session was presided by Engineer Nassr Ibrahim Hasanen (Soudan) assisted by major Khaled Suleiman Akl (KSA) and Youssef Hasan Em Marzooki (UAE).

During the session the following lectures were presented:

(a)    – Geographic retrieval systems – Engineer Ziad Abdullah (Lebanon).

(b)   Engineer Amal El Husseini (Lebanon) presented a practical training on how to create a glossary of geographical names on the databases.

(c)    Brigadier General Maroun Khraish made an intervention related to the issue of creating a unified glossary where the Arab experts were contented with the idea and its importance, on one condition: every Arab country must specify the terms and the names of the villages and cities to be studied within the specialized committees.

(10)– The tenth session: Exonyms in Arabic geographical names.

The session was headed by Saad Saoud Al Azimi (Kuwait) assisted by Captain Rene Mouawad (Lebanon) and Muhammad Al Azeez Al Atibi (KSA).

Talal Mefleh (Jordan) presented a lecture entitled: the exonyms: concept, methods and reasons, and prepared by Ibrahim Al Zokrti (Jordan). The attendees discussed the exonyms and their relation with the removal of diacritical marks while defining the Exonym. The attendees raised the issue of the Judaisation of the names in Palestine by the Israeli enemy and how to find a solution to this issue to preserve the original names of the Palestinian geographical sites. Noting that this issue was raised previously in the first Arab experts’ session which was held in Beirut in 1971, at that time the Arab countries were requested to prepare lists of the geographical sites especially in Palestine to preserve it from Judaisation.

Finally the representative of the Arab league suggested generalizing the scientific information exchanged during the conference on all the Arab countries due to its importance.

(11)– The Eleventh session: how to deal with the Exonyms in Arabic geographical names.

The session was headed by General Ali Al Mabrook (Tunisia) assisted by Abdullah El Ghayhab (KSA) and Dr. Omar Chareef (Egypt).

General Mabrook started his statement with an overview of the session then he presented a lecture on the exonyms in Tunisia.

The Arab experts had a wide discussion concerning the definition of the exonyms while they gave some examples to stress on their point of views. Some said that the exonyms are the names of the geographical sites of a given country used by another country and some other said that the exonyms are those used by the local population while its origin are another languages and countries, but they were used locally because of a mandate or a war.

The representative of Soudan said that translating the names of the places into Arabic is not accepted; one of the experts suggested preserving the original names because it shows the civilization and the history of the population.

Afterwards, engineer Amal El Husseini (Lebanon) presented a lecture entitled: the exonyms in the Arab language where she defined the nature of the exonyms.

(12)The Twelfth session: placing the geographical names on the maps.

The session was presided by Muhammad El Rached (KSA) assisted by Youssef El Marzooki (UAE) and Najeeb Al Wazee (Tunisia).

During the session a lecture about placing the geographical names and the information on the maps was presented by (Colonel Engineer Joseph Nassar – Lebanon) where he explained how to put geographical names on the maps in Arabic and in English and the Romanized alphabets. Afterwards Brigadier General Maroun Khraish explained in details how to put the geographical names on the maps and that the way of writing geographical names varies from a language to another (from left to right or from right to left).

(13)– The thirteenth session: the common Arab Atlas.

The session was presided by Brigadier General Maroun Khraish (Lebanon) assisted by Muhammad Ahmad El Rached (KSA) and Youssef Issa Ibrahim (Qatar).

The president started the session with an introduction highlighting the issue of how important it is to preserve the geographical names and to prepare a glossary including all these names. Brigadier General Maroun Khraish presented the recommendations issued by the session held in Beirut in 1971. The recommendations were discussed with the Arab experts who presented also some suggestions such as posting the glossary on the website of the division and creating a glossary which includes all the meanings of geographical names with the pictures of the locations and translating the names into English.

Brigadier General Maroun Khraish reminded of what was suggested by the UNGEGN, to write all the unwritten names. The attendees discussed later on all the decisions which will be issued at the end of the conference.

(14)– The Final session: electing a new administrative board of the division and specifying the date and time of the upcoming committees’ meetings.

The session was chaired by Brigadier General Maroun Khraish (Lebanon) assisted by Dr. Seif El Kaydi (UAE) and Dr. Ibrahim Atwi (Algeria); during the session the decisions formulated previously were discussed and were adopted as follow:

(a)    One: Legitimacy of the conference.

(b)    Two:   Affirming the adoption of the Unified Arab system for the transliteration of the Arab geographical names to the Latin alphabets.

(c)    Three: activating the work of the committees elected during the third Arab conference.

(d)   Four: Creating Arab committees to unify the geographical names.

(e)   Five: affirming the membership of the Arab countries in the division and attending its meeting.

(f)     Six: requesting the Arab countries to collect geographical names and to create a unified Arab glossary.

(g)    Seven: Developing and enriching the website of the division.

(h)   Eight: postponing the first conference of the Arab Committee of Cartography.

(i)      Nine: Generalizing the results of the Fourth Arab Conference on Geographical Names in all the Arab countries.

(j)     Ten: Electing a new administrative board for the division with:

- Brigadier General Maroun Khraish (Lebanon)                               President

- Dr. Seif El kaydi (UAE)                                                                         Vice President

- Dr. Ibrahim Atoui (Algeria)                                                                Vice President

- Mr. Muhammad Ahmad Al Rached (KSA)                                     Reporter

 - Mr. Ibrahim Al Jaber (Jordan)                                                         Editor

(k)    Eleven: Asking Lebanon to host the fifth Arab conference on Geographical Names which will be held during the first half of the year 2010 in Beirut.

(l)      Twelve: Attending the twenty fifth session of United Nations experts on Geographical names which will take place in Kenya.

(m) Thirteen: Thanking deeply the Lebanese Republic, His Excellency the Lebanese President, The Arab League, the UNGEGN the commandment of the army and the directorate of geographical affairs.

(n)   Fourteen: Thanking the president of the conference and its team for all the efforts done to organize and prepare this conference in such a very good manner.

The timing of the committees’ meetings and its work mechanism were discussed later on and it was agreed to hold a meeting once every year at least during the same year in which the conference of experts on geographical names will take place. The committees will discuss the subjects adopted in the previous conference.

(o)   After the final session, the documents of the conference and the final resolutions were delivered to the representative of the secretary general of the Arab League: Ambassador Abdul Rahman Al Solh. A farewell cocktail was organized for all the Arabs who attended the conference and participated in its activities.

(p)   After The cocktail a press conference was held for the new administrative board of the division, various journalists and specialized persons attended the press conference which was followed by a discussion and a debate about the resolutions and decisions adopted by the conference and the future plans of the division.

(q)   The activities of the conference:

An official dinner was held after the conference for all the delegations in Awtar Restaurant in Monroe Hotel; among the participants were: the representative of the secretary general of the Arab League, the representative of the Commander of the Army, Some Arab diplomats, the President of the conference, the Arab experts on Geographical names, the heads of the geographical institutions in the Arab countries, the big officers in the Army, the delegates of the companies  and the supporting universities, the syndicate of licensed topographers in Lebanon.

(r) – the Attendees showed a great deal of scientific knowledge, high spirit of solidarity and they were convinced that it is very important to coordinate on the level of Geographical sciences generally and Geographical names particularly. All the relevant decisions were adopted unanimously which shows that the attendees are willing to continue the coordination in this field.

(s) – The president of the conference signed the final report which was distributed to all the participants. 

SECOND: THE DISCUSSIOSNS AND DECISIONS:

A-     The conference ‘s discussions were based on the following topics:

(1)- Generalize the standard Arabic system for transliteration of Arabic geographic names to Latin alphabet.

(2)- Collect and document the geographical names in order to preserve from loss and elimination, and build a unified Arabic glossary for geographical names.

(3)- Activate the work of the Arabic Division’s committees of experts on geographical names and encourage the Arab countries to nominate their delegates to these committees.

(4)- Tune the exonyms while respecting its historical background.

(5)- Articulate and pronounce the Arabic and Latin alphabets and the impact of the different accents on the geographical names spelling.

B-      The conference’ sessions included a big number of scientific lectures related to various topics pertaining to the geographical names (Annex 4), in addition to valuable interventions and discussions at the end of which the attendees came up with decisions, recommendations and conclusions, the most important of which are the following: 

(1)- Adjourning the discussions of the modification of the internal rules and regulations of the Division to future conferences.

(2)- Confirming the necessity of applying the standard Arabic system for transliteration of Arabic geographical names to Latin alphabet and requesting the Arab League generalizing it on all the member states.

(3)- Requesting the head of the committee to ask the Arab League to dedicate again permanent locations to the Division in the Arab League headquarter in Beirut.

(4)- Modifying the committees' agenda and nominating the committees' members by some countries, provided that the other countries should receive letters concerning the nomination of their members. It was also agreed that the Committee should meet at least once per year.

(5)- Seeking to build a unified Arabic glossary for geographical names and recommending the Arab states to collect the geographical names and build relative glossaries which will be merged in a unified Arabic glossary in a future stage.

(6)- Confirming the necessity of establishing a founding committee of the Arabic Cartographic Committee and seeking to hold a founding conference in 2009.

(7)- Investing the expertise of the Arab in the aim of training experts from all the Arab countries and working on holding education and training sessions in cooperation with the UNGEGN Education and Training Committee.

(8)- Evaluating the efforts of the Directorate of Geographic Affairs (DAG) to create the Division's website and working on developing and upgrading it on the level of information and displays.

(9)- Electing a new administrative board of the Division that includes Brigadier General Maroun Khraish (President), Dr Sayf Al-Kady (Vice-president), Dr Ibrahim Atwy (Vice-president), Mr. Mohammed Ahmed Al-Rashed (Reporter) and Mr. Ibrahim Al-Jaber (editor).

(10)- Confirming the importance of the suggested scientific materials such as alphabets articulations, the spelling of the geographical names and the impact of the various accents, and treating the Exonyms and other different topics.

(11)- Evaluate the efforts of the Directorate of Geographic Affairs (DAG) which led to this conference and to its success on the logistic and scientific levels.

(12)- Attending the Twenty Fifth session of the United Nations Experts on geographical names in Nairobi (Kenya) in May 2009.

(13)- At the end of the conference, the attendees extended their thanks and gratitude to the Lebanese Republic, to his Excellency the President general Michel Suleiman, to his Highness Secretary General of the Arab League headed by the group of experts on geographical names, to the army commandment and to the Directorate of Geographic Affairs (DAG).

(14)- Thanks and gratitude to the President of the conference and to the organizing committee.

C-      The attendees decided to hold the Third Arab conference on Geographical Names during the first half of 2010 in Beirut after receiving the approval of the official authorities in Lebanon provided that the administrative body shall decide the conference agenda till the end of 2008 and shall send all the invitations to the governments of the member states. 

The participants expressed their thanks and gratitude to the Lebanese government and to its President General Michel Suleiman for sponsoring the conference, the Army commandment, the ministers, the deputies, the syndicates, universities and companies which supported the conference, and to its president and its organizing committee for its good organization and administration of the sessions.

THIRD: THE RECOMMENDATIONS:

 The conference recommends

1-      The Arab League to:

A-     Generalize the standard Arabic system for transliteration of Arabic geographic names to Latin alphabet on the maps and signs of the cities, towns, streets, places, and natural locations and sites including mountains, lowlands, rivers, seas, lakes, deserts, planes and others. It is to be noted that the delegates who attended the meeting decided unanimously, after deliberating the details of the implemented rules of the system, to approve its application in their countries.

B-      Request the Arab countries to submit their approval regarding the application of the system over a period of 3 months from the submission date.

C-      Adopt this system by the Arab League Economic and Social council and then send a letter to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) with a notice comprising the Arab League's approval on the system's adoption and ask the ECOSOC to adopt it and generalize it on the rest of the international organizations, especially the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) so that it will become the only adopted system.

D-     Accord the necessary care to the standardization and tuning of the geographical names at the level of all the Arab countries and encourage these countries to confirm their memberships in the Arab Division of the United Nations geographical names experts and submit this approval to the Arab League and the Arab Division in addition to a list containing the names of the permanent associations of geographic names in each country and a list for the officials and experts working in the field with their postal addresses and emails; and work within the elected Arab body and its committees on collecting and standardizing names, and building geographical glossaries and atlases in preparation for issuing the unified Arabic glossary for geographical names and the unified Arabic geographical atlas.

E-      Encourage the Arab countries to create permanent national bodies to collect, tune and standardize the geographical names in execution of the decisions of the relevant Arab and international conferences.

2-      The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN): 

A-     Note that, during the Third conference held in 2007 in Beirut, the Arab experts have declared a modified system for transliteration of Arabic geographic names to Latin alphabet based on the Beirut Paper which was modified in 2002 during the Eighth conference on geographical names held in Berlin. This Paper contains the Transliteration Alphabet and its description as well as general rules for its application aiming at executing the transliteration process of the Arabic geographical names into Latin alphabet. The Arab experts had confirmed their engagement in this system during the Fourth conference.

B-      Apply this new system, in all its details, to all the processes of transliterating the Arabic geographical names to Latin alphabet on the United Nations level.

C-      Generalize this system onto the rest of the divisions and committees related to the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) and onto all the permanent universal organizations.

D-     Request these organizations to modify the used systems in accordance with this new system, as necessary.

3-      The Secretariat of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ECOSOC):

A-     Submit the ESCWA-related recommendations to the Secretariat of this Council which is mentioned in the final report of the Fourth conference and then forward it to the UNGEGN.

B-      Submit the standard Arabic system for transliteration of Arabic geographic names to Latin alphabet to the ECOSOC General Secretary in addition to the convenient suggestions related to its application.

C-      Suggest adequate mechanisms for cooperation and coordination with the administrative board of the Arab Division of Experts on Geographical Names (ADEGN) in conformity with the tasks of the Council which is located in Beirut and declare them in coordination with the chair of the Arab Division.

D-     Coordinate with the founding committee of the Cartography Arab board created by virtue of decision No. 9 issued by the Third Arab conference on Geographical Names (decision attached to this letter), establish the founding bases of this body and hold its first conference in 2009 in Beirut in execution of the recommendation figuring in the Eighth paragraph of the results and recommendations of the Fourth conference (Beirut 2008).  

 The conference recommends

4-      The Arab governments to:

A – Adopt the system issued by the Third Arab conference on Geographical names held in Beirut to be used as a unified system in all the Arab countries, so that they can transliterate the geographical names from the Arab Alphabet to the Lain alphabet, and to write the names – according to its rules – on the maps and the road signs in the villages, the cities, the neighborhoods, the squares, the streets, the geographical sites, the valleys, the lakes, the planes, the deserts and many other geographical names.

B – Affirm its membership in the division and approve the use of the modified Beirut system and its rules issued in the third conference (Beirut 2007) before the end of September 2008, so that the league and the Arab division will be able to do what is needed to be done at the United Nations before the twenty fifth session for geographical experts planned to take place in the United Nations premises in Nairobi Kenya from the 5^th till the 12^th of May 2009.  

C – Nominate the members of the elected committees according to decision 3 issued by the third conference and related to the election of a new administrative board for the Arab division of experts on Geographical names and to the nomination of its committees. All this should be sent within a period of two months to the president of the administrative board on the address mentioned in the annex (1).

D – Publish the new Glossaries, Atlas, dictionaries and maps in addition to upgrading those issued before so that they will be in accordance with the rules of the new system.

E – Generalize this system on all the Schools, Universities, Public and Private Institutions in each country to explain its method of implementation in the entire private and public sectors of the country.

F – Create a National committee for geographical names in every country to be responsible of collecting, unifying, preserving and using the geographical names to unify the references especially when new names are to be introduced or old names are to be changed or written differently according to its sources and to transliterate it to the Latin alphabets, so that the names will be adopted with its similar names in the remaining Arab countries and with the recommendations of the UNGEGN.

G – Facilitate the work of the Arab division of experts on geographical names and to sponsor its conferences which take place every two years in one of the member states and its sessions held by the committees every year in the field of unifying the ….and …. And issuing  electrical and … glossaries and to develop the systems of transferring t names onto Latin letters as well as organizing  educative and training sessions related to the issue. Supporting it financially and  …  in order to accomplish  its mission in the Arab world and internationally. Preparing the twenty fifth session  for  United Nation experts agreed upon earlier which will  be held in (Kenya 2009) in addition to participate devotedly in its activities. Preparing for the fifth Arab conference to be held in Beirut in 2010 in which all Arab countries will participate in its activities.

H- Collect geographical national names in lists and present them to the Arab division in order to study them within the committees. Unifying the ways of collecting, writing and transferring the geographical names into Latin alphabet. Moreover, various glossaries will be published before publishing The Arab Glossary for Standardization of Geographical names.

I- Encourage researchers and university students to give the geographical names issue an importance  due to its historical, social, religious, economic and cultural value.  Presenting the results of their researches to the national committees of geographical names in order to collect, tune and unify them before using them in glossaries and maps according to their similarities in the Arab countries, all this must respect the United Nations’ decisions issued in this regard.

Conference recommends

5-      The Lebanese governments to:

A – Approve to hold the fifth Arab conference of experts of geographical names in Beirut during the first half of the year 2010.

B – Generalize the unified Arab system of transliteration of geographical names to the Latin alphabets adopted in the third conference and to take the necessary procedures to implement it in Lebanon. The conference recommends the Lebanese government also to notify the Arab League that it has approved to use the system in Lebanon before the end of September 2008, while affirming the membership of Lebanon in the division according to the resolutions of the three previous conferences held in Beirut in the years (1971 – 2007 – 2008).

C – Submit two copies of this report in addition to the decisions and recommendations issued by the conference and its documents to the Secretariat of the ECOSOC located in Beirut, and to the Arab League.

D – Take the necessary decision regarding the establishment of the national committee of geographical names as a step towards applying the recommendations and decisions of the regional and international conferences.

E – Ask the secretariat of the Arab league officially to approve and do what is needed to consider that the Headquarter of the Arab league in Beirut is a permanent location for the Arab division of Geographical names’ experts.

Beirut the 20^th of June 2008

President of the Fourth conference on Geographical Names

Brigadier General Maroun Khraish.