THE POSTAL HISTORY OF ICAO

Errors in the name of the Organization

The official name of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is defined by Article 43 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known as Chicago Convention signed on 7 December 1944 by 52 States. From there, ICAO’s official name is written as follows:

1. In English: International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO);
2. In French: Organisation de l’aviation civile internationale (OACI);
3. In Spanish: Organización de Aviación Civil Internacional (OACI);
4. In Russian: Международная организация гражданской авиации (ИКАО).

As regards details on the design errors on the Organization’s name, it is to be highlighted that such errors appeared in the following instances:

1. In English: The word organization spelled with the letter “z” is the American way of writing this word, whereas the word organisation with the letter “s” is commonly used in Great Britain, the British Commonwealth and the former British Colonies. So the countries from the latter part of the world have spelled the word organization with the letter “s”, without complying with the text of the Convention. This observation covers most of errors in the English name of the Organization.
2. In French: Stamps from the francophone countries show errors due to an omission of the articles “de l’” between the words Organisation and aviation, or due a misuse of capitals at the beginning of all the words of the name.
3. In Spanish: Frequent errors are due to a misuse of the article between the words Organización and Aviación; the article either is just omitted or emphasized in the form of “de la”.
4. 4. In Russian: An interesting error is explained here below with the picture of the Bulgarian stamp.

Convention on International Civil Aviation – ICAO Document #7300
Convention on International Civil Aviation Article 43 in English, French, Spanish and Russian
Stamps issued by the “British” countries of the world, wherein the word Organization is spelled with “s”.
Souvenir cover issued for the 12^th Session of the ICAO Assembly held in San Diego, USA from 16 June to 9 July 1959. Error in the Organization’s name: “Civic” should have been written “Civil”.
Cameroon (1967), Gabon (1967) and Togo (1985) Missing articles and incorrect capitals in the name.
Canada -16 September 1994 50^th Anniversary of ICAO The words Organization and Organisation have been omitted in the English and French names of the Organization.	Monaco - June 1995 Phone card for the 50^th Anniversary of ICAO Incorrect capitals in the French name.
Uruguay - 17 October 1977 30^th Anniversary of ICAO “de” is missing in ICAO's Spanish name.	Cuba – 9 November 1994 50^thAnniversary of ICAO Article "la" is not needed in the Spanish name of the Organization.
Bulgaria – 25 December 1984 - 40^th Anniversary of ICAO As regards the Cyrillic name of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the margin uses the word airline (in singular form) instead of aviation. A second error comes from the acronym of the Organization (ИКАО), wherein the letter A is missing.

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