Who develops ISO standards

ISO standards are developed by technical committees, (subcommittees or project committees) comprising experts from the industrial, technical and business sectors which have asked for the standards, and which subsequently put them to use. These experts may be joined by representatives of government agencies, testing laboratories, consumer associations, non-governmental organizations and academic circles.

Proposals to establish new technical committees are submitted to all ISO national member bodies, who may opt to be participating (P), observer (O) or non-members of the committee. The secretariat (i.e. the body providing the administrative support to the work of the committee) is allocated by the Technical Management Board (which itself reports to the ISO Council), usually to the ISO member body which made the proposal. The secretariat is responsible for nominating an individual to act as chair of the technical committee. The chair is formally appointed by the Technical Management Board.

Experts participate as national delegations, chosen by the ISO national member body for the country concerned. National delegations are required to represent not just the views of the organizations in which their participating experts work, but those of other stakeholders too. National delegations are usually based on and supported by national mirror committees to which the delegations report.

According to ISO rules, the national member body is expected to take account of the views of all parties interested in the standard under development. This enables them to present a consolidated, national consensus position to the technical committee.

International and regional organizations from both business and the public sector may apply for liaison status to participate in developing a standard, or to be informed about the work. Such “organizations in liaisons” are accepted through voting by the relevant ISO committee. They may comment on successive drafts, propose new work items or even propose documents for “fast tracking” , but they have no voting rights.