The ISO 26000 Post Publication Organization has
- after analyzing the 2016/17 systematic review/survey to ISO member countries and
- having consulted with the 30+ strong stakeholder advisory group
sent the following recommendation to ISO Technical Management Board (TMB):
A revision of ISO 26000:2010 is needed:
Revision exclusively limited to updating and aligning the current text in ISO 26000: 2010
with recent changes in international authoritative documents. It is also recommended that
the following boundaries be set to the revision:
- any changes shall be permitted only when having a clear connection to such
international documents, and need to be fully justified and approved by the responsible
committee; - any new recommendations need to be fully justified and approved by the responsible
committee; - existing Recommendations should not be deleted, unless there is good justification
and this is approved by the responsible committee; - maintain number and scope of principles, core subjects, issues and definitions;
- reasonably maintain size and tone of the document;
- if annexes are to be reviewed it should be in line with the existing criteria and
procedures in ISO 26000:2010.
International documents to be considered for this alignment should be a matter of
consensus by the responsible committee at the beginning of the revision process, but
would include in principle: The UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, UN
SDGs as set out in resolutions A/RES/70/1 (Agenda 2030), The OECD Guidelines for
Multinational Enterprises and the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles for Multinational
Enterprises and Social Policy, and relevant ISO standards connected with to the core
subjects of ISO 26000. Other relevant international documents to be referenced during
the revision process other than these ones, can be included by the responsible committee,
if necessary, under the criteria of clear consensus among its members.
PPO urges ISO/TMB to decide that the revision process is carried out with at least as
strong procedures and balanced stakeholder engagement and regional balance that
characterized the development of ISO 26000:2010. This would greatly contribute to the
continued legitimacy of the standard and the process.
It is now up to the ISO TMB to decide if and how ISO 26000 is to be updated. Their next meeting is in Berlin in September.