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International cooperation / Cooperation with ISO

International Organization for Standardization

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)founded in 1946 by 25 national standardization bodies and started to work on 23 February 1947. It is world'slargest developer and publisher ofInternational Standards. ISO is not an acronym or initialismfor the organization's full name in either official language. The organization adopted ISO based on the Greek word“isos”, meaningequal. Recognizing that the organization's initials would be different in different languages, the organization's founders chose ISO as the universal short form of its name.

The official languages are English, French and Russian. Activity of ISO includes almost all sectors of economy, except electrotechnical sector, which is under the main activity of International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Some activities are carried out together with IEC and they had founded a joint technical committee ISO/IEC JTC1 “Information technologies”.

ISO defines itself as anon-governmental organization. It has its headquarters in Geneva,Switzerland. ISO has 162 members.

Member bodies

Correspondent members

Subscriber members

Other places who aren't members of ISO

Membership categories of ISO are the following:

▪ Member bodiesare national bodies that are considered to be the most representative standards body in each country. These are the only members of ISO that have voting rights.

▪ Correspondent membersare countries that do not have their own standards organization. These members are informed about ISO's work, but do not participate in standards promulgation.

▪ Subscriber membersare countries with small economies. They pay reduced membership fees, but can follow the development of standards.

ISO has administrative and working bodies. The administrative bodies are General Assembly, Council (under the Council, there are a number of policy development committees to provide strategic guidance for the standards' development work on cross-sectoral aspects which are: CASCO (conformity assessment); COPOLCO (consumer policy), and DEVCO (developing country matters) and Technical Management Board.

ISO standards are developed bytechnical committees, subcommittees and working groups. ISO has developed over 17500 International Standards and some 1100 new ISO standards are published every year. ISO national member bodies may participate in technical committees as P-member (Participating) or O-member (observer).

The representative of Armenia in the ISO is the National Institute of Standards (SARM). It was Correspondent membersof ISO for 1994 – 1997 years and is a member body since 1997. SARM participates in the standardization activities of 15 technical committees and 14 subcommittees.

Technical committees and subcommittees

▪ JTC 1- Information technology (P-Member)

▪ JTC 1/SC 2- Coded character sets (O-Member)

▪ JTC 1/SC 17- Cards and personal identification (P-Member)

▪ JTC 1/SC 34- Document description and processing languages (P-Member)

▪ TC 34- Food products (O-Member)

▪ TC 34/SC 3- Fruit and vegetable products (O-Member)

▪ TC 34/SC 5- Milk and milk products (O-Member)

▪ TC 34/SC 6- Meat, poultry, fish, eggs and their products (O-Member)

▪ TC 34/SC 14- Fresh, dry and dried fruits and vegetables (O-Member)

▪ TC 34/SC 15- Coffee (O-Member)

▪ TC 46- Information and documentation (P-Member)