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Press Release: ISO/ TC207 delays voting on NGO Task Group
At its 8th plenary session in Stockholm on June 12-18, 2000, the Environmental Management Technical Committee 207 of the International Standards Organisation (ISO/TC 207) delayed voting on a landmark resolution to form an NGO Task Group. The Task Group was proposed to facilitate participation of environmental and consumer NGOs in setting the ISO 14000 series standards. If ISO/TC 207 members approve the Task Group in a 4-months letter ballot, it would be chaired by an NGO representative and would serve for an initial period of two years. If the results of the letter ballot are negative, more NGOs may withdraw from the process despite proposed alternative measures to increase their participation.
NGOs have long maintained that their voice is not given adequate consideration in the ISO proceedings, instituted in the 1940s for the purposes of designing mainly technical standards. In response to these concerns, ISO TC 207 established an NGO Contact Group, which has produced a discussion paper on the issues of NGOs' participation. The paper argued that the ISO 14000 series standards affect global and national environmental and sustainable development public policy issues. This motivates environmental NGOs to participate in the standards setting process. While some organisations have managed to provide valuable input, others have so far lacked the capacity to influence the process. This has caused many prominent NGOs such as WWF, Sierra Club and EEB to withdraw from participating in ISO/TC 207 and related proceedings, which may undermine the credibility of the standards. The discussion paper has identified a number of obstacles to NGOs' participation and recommended creating a special Task Group to deal with these issues.
The NGO Task Group would include NGOs involved in the TC 207 process as well as representatives of ISO member bodies. It would identify means to overcome financial, procedural and other impediments to effective NGO participation, drawing from best national and international practices. The Task Group would also establish an interface with a wide NGO audience in developed and developing countries through a web site, publications, workshops and seminars.
However, the ISO/TC 207 member bodies apparently felt uncomfortable with establishing an NGO Task Group. Among other the delegations of the United Kingdom, Germany and Austria have criticised the proposal, which was subsequently rejected by a majority of the ISO/TC 207 members. Instead, the member bodies agreed to vote on the Task Group in a 4-month letter ballot after consulting their national constituencies and NGOs. If the outcome of the letter ballot is negative ISO/TC 207 would retain the NGO Contact Group and expand its membership to include NGOs already participating in ISO proceedings. This may not be enough for some NGOs who see little value in using their scarce resources to participate in a process where their influence is negligible. As a result, more NGOs may resign from ISO/TC 207 and its subcommittees. In the next few months, NGOs are planning a campaign to persuade ISO member bodies to vote positively on the NGO Task Group.
For further information and key related documents please visit www.ecologia.org/iso14000.
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