Nearly 300 delegates attended the first meeting of the new International Organization for Standardization (ISO) working group that will develop ISO 26000, the planned standard on social responsibility (SR). By the end of the meeting, the working group had formulated 32 resolutions, mainly regarding the scope of the standard, which will include guidelines on product manufacturing, fair pay rates, and appropriate employee treatment and hiring practices.
Unlike SA8000, which was released by Social Accountability International in 2000 and specifically addresses employee working conditions, ISO 26000 will be advisory in nature. It’s not a management system and will not be used for certification purposes.
ISO opted to develop the standard in response to its members’ strong interest in the issue. Interest was particularly high among developing nations. Of the 37 member countries that voted to form a committee to develop the standard, 32 asked to be part of the process.
The meeting was held March 7–11, 2005, in Brazil and represented ISO’s first venture into social responsibility standardization. It was attended by 43 ISO member countries, including 21 developing nations and 24 organizations with liaison status.
The broad interest represented by the meeting’s high turnout will allow ISO 26000’s working group to address the complex issues that will arise in the standard’s development. Representation will be balanced geographically and by gender for six designated stakeholder categories: industry, government, labor, consumers, nongovernmental organizations and others.
“Despite the large numbers—and the fact that for many participants, it was their first-ever contact with the ISO standards-development system—a good, balanced representation was achieved and the meeting was very productive, formulating resolutions that begin to pave the path forward for the actual work on the standard itself,” says Jorge E.R. Cajazeira, co-chair of the ISO 26000 working group. “There were a lot of hands raised, questions and long debates. However, the delegates worked with great enthusiasm and commitment, including during coffee breaks, lunch and after hours.”
The working group also formed an Editing Committee, agreed to establish a Spanish translation task force, adopted operating procedures for decision making and adopted operating procedures to help implement the memorandum of understanding ISO previously reached with the International Labour Organization.
“ISO’s work is intended to add value to, and not to replace, existing intergovernmental agreements with relevance to social responsibility, such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and those adopted by the ILO [International Labour Organization] and other UN conventions,” says Cajazeira. “ISO can add value by developing an international consensus on basic guiding principles that will bring clarity, encourage communication and allow meaningful comparisons in the field of social responsibility.”
For more information, visit www.iso.org.
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