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International Standards for Peace and Prosperity 31st World Standards Day 14 October 2000

2000-09-14

Each year on 14 October, the members of ISO, the IEC and the ITU celebrate World Standards Day, which is a means of paying tribute to the collaborative efforts of the thousands of experts worldwide who develop the voluntary technical agreements that are published as International Standards.

In a world that changes and evolves ever more rapidly, human beings have a strong need for stabilizing influences. So say the leaders of the three principal organizations responsible for developing international technical standards in their joint World Standards Day message. The message is signed by ISO President Prof. Giacomo Elias, IEC President Mathias Fünfschilling and ITU Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi.

As we explore, create and develop, we also need to bring greater order, peace and prosperity to the world. Technically, economically and in all kinds of international relations, we need a known starting point, some `rules of procedure' and a common basis for measuring progress, acceptability and achievement.

Specifically in technology and science, and therefore in the vast proportion of industrial, business and economic spheres, these are most often enshrined in the consensus-based documents published as International Standards or Recommendations by the three truly global standardization bodies: the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

"One vital role of IEC, ISO and ITU standards and other technical agreements," say the organizations' leaders, is to create an equilibrium, a form of peace, from all the competing technical, economic, social and environmental pressures that make up our modern world."

The standards development process allows an essential level of consensus, a stable foundation on which to build an agreed route forward.

Technical standards are voluntarily conceived, elaborated, adopted and applied by users ranging all the way from individuals through companies, professional associations and national governments to regional groupings. They are democratically developed in the widest global perspective, aiming to offer the greatest good to the greatest number.

But International Standards in the 21st Century are also living guidelines and specifications, say the IEC, ISO and ITU leaders. "They must retain a degree of flexibility and be open to adaptation, modernization and improvement, even withdrawal or replacement when changing circumstances, technologies or markets so demand."

Standardization by its nature is neither an easy nor in many cases a fast process, say the leaders. But it is the huge benefits, not only for the participants but most importantly for the prosperity and convenience of mankind in general, that drive international standardization forward.

"The global technical agreements forged in the IEC, ISO and ITU help to set and maintain the highest levels of safety, performance and quality in a vast range of products and services, to ensure their environmental friendliness, to foster technical understanding and technology exchange around the world, to promote the still rapidly expanding business and trade among nations that are a hallmark of our times and cornerstones of sustainable social as well as economic development."

The World Standards Day message concludes: "Without agreement, there can be no peace. And without peace, there can be no lasting prosperity. International Standards are an essential tool in mankind's continuing efforts to achieve more of both."

Note for editors: The 2000 World Standards Day poster was created by the well known Italian artist and publisher Franco Maria Ricci, known by his initials FMR. "A standard," says FMR, "is first and foremost an agreement between people," which suggested the title for the poster: Harmony for Prosperity. FMR chose a polyhedron by Leonardo da Vinci to symbolize this harmony.