10. Working Group on Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage

Convenor

Bill Watt (Australia) E-mail Mr. Watt (William.Watt@sa.gov.au)

Background

The Working Group was formed to address resolution 1 of the Eighth Conference (Berlin, 2002), recommending that geographical names authorities present a summary of activities for inclusion in a general report on the promotion of the use of indigenous and minority group geographical names.

The mandate of the Working Group was extended as a result of resolution 5 of the Ninth Conference (New York, 2007) to cover guidelines for field collection, gathering of models for promotion of these names and opening dialogue with other groups involved in this work.

Recent reports
Results to 2011

A systematic reporting procedure was prepared to allow countries that so wished to contribute information on their indigenous and minority group name programmes in time for the Ninth Conference in 2007. Results of this work can be viewed as:

  • Report of the UNGEGN Working Group on the Promotion of Indigenous and Minority Group Names, E/CONF.98/42

Updates will periodically be made to the report and made available here.

Form for submission of data to the WG Convenor (formats: Excel, Word or pdf)

Current work plan
  • Continue to maintain and update version 1 of the promotion report
  • Compile a set of guidelines for field collection of indigenous, minority and regional language group geographical names
  • Initiate dialogue between UNGEGN and other national and international groups and academic bodies involved with indigenous, minority and regional language group geographical names, to further the work on geographical names standardization
Earlier documents (prior to August 2007)