Preliminary Voting Results given for ISO CD 26000.
Press Release Summary:
According to International Organization for Standardization Working Group on Social Responsibility (ISO SR), ISO Committee Draft (CD) 26000, Social Responsibility, has received sufficient support under ISO Directives to move forward to ISO Draft International Standard (DIS) stage. As the US member body to ISO, American National Standards Institute (ANSI) invited all interested U.S. parties to obtain and review the draft standard and to develop their input for consideration.
Original Press Release:
ISO Social Responsibility Working Group Leaders Report Preliminary Voting Results on ISO Committee Draft 26000
New York March 18, 2009
According to an official communication from the International Organization for Standardization Working Group on Social Responsibility (ISO SR), the ISO Committee Draft (CD) 26000, Social Responsibility, has received sufficient support under the ISO Directives to move the document forward to the ISO Draft International Standard (DIS) stage.
ISO/CD 26000 was issued in mid-December for the first round of national consensus position and comment development. As the U.S. member body to ISO, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) invited all interested U.S. parties to obtain and review the draft standard and to develop their input for consideration.
The ANSI-accredited U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to ISO SR met in February and successfully achieved consensus across all TAG stakeholders on a negative voting position with comments. The American Society for Quality (ASQ) serves as administrator of the U.S. TAG to ISO SR, providing administrative facilitation for all aspects of the TAG's work.
Voting and comments on ISO/CD 26000 closed on March 12, 2009. More than two-thirds of the ISO national standards body votes were in favor of moving the document to the DIS phase, which is a numerical indication in the ISO Directives for consensus acceptance of a CD. Organizations working in liaison with ISO SR expressed a similar level of support.
At this time, ISO SR leadership is further analyzing the voting results and comments submitted; next steps will be communicated in the near future. A full compilation of the voting and comments is expected to be circulated within two weeks.
The ISO SR will next meet during the week of May 18, 2009, in Quebec City. During the gathering, working group members will work to address all comments received as required under the ISO Directives and to try to further improve the consensus on the draft.
If progress on the document's development continues according to normal ISO timelines, it is expected that the final ISO 26000 standard would be ready for publication by the end of 2010 or early 2011.
For more information, please contact either Steven Cornish of ANSI staff (scornish@ansi.org) or Jennifer Admussen of ASQ staff (jadmussen@asq.org).
What is ISO 26000?
ISO 26000, Social Responsibility, is intended to assist in ushering companies, government agencies, and other organizations toward a more sustainable global economy by establishing common guidance on social responsibility concepts, definitions, and methods of evaluation. It is also intended for use by organizations in both developed and developing areas of the world.
The proposed standard will complement existing public- and private-sector Social Responsibility (SR) initiatives, including inter-governmental agreements such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, developed respectively by the UN and its constituent organization the International Labour Organization (ILO).
