Introduction

About ISONET

ISONET – the ISO Information Network – is an agreement between standardizing bodies to combine their efforts in order to make information on standards, technical regulations and related matters readily available whenever it is required.

ISONET depends on the principle that in each country there is a body, usually the ISO member body, with a wide knowledge of standardizing and regulatory activities in the country concerned. As a party to ISONET it agrees to expand this knowledge to the maximum and to share its experience and exchange information as required with similar bodies in other countries.

ISONET is a network comprised of the national standards information centres and it constitutes the links between them. It includes also the ISO/IEC Information Centre in Geneva and a few international members that have similar responsibilities for providing information at international level.

Parties to the agreement

The parties to the agreement are known as the members of ISONET. A national member of ISONET is either the ISO member body (or correspondent member) or another competent body nominated by the ISO member. A country may be represented in ISONET by one, and only one, national member.

National members of ISONET may nominate as associate members other organizations in their own countries when they consider that this would be helpful to them in achieving the aims of ISONET.

A third type of member of ISONET is the international member. This is an international or a regional body with an interest in ISONET which has joined by invitation of the Secretary-General of ISO.

Full details of the rights and obligations of the various types of members of ISONET are given in the ISONET Principles and Procedures, available from the ISO/IEC Information Centre.

The ISONET Directory

The ISONET Directory lists all information centres operating within ISONET, with details of how they may be contacted and the types of information they are able to provide.

Within its Related addresses section, the Directory includes direct links to the regularly updated listings of ISO and IEC members which are maintained on the Websites of, respectively,  ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission). Also included are PDF versions of the latest WTO (World Trade Organization) listings giving names and addresses of the enquiry points established under the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (WTO/TBT) and under the WTO Agreement on Sanitary Phyto-Sanitary (WTO/SPS). Also included is a print-friendly version of the ISONET directory in PDF format.

The ISONET Directory therefore constitutes a complete worldwide guide to the main sources of information on standards, technical regulations, certification systems and related matters.

Codes used in this Directory

The symbols for languages in the entries are in accordance with International Standard ISO 639-1:2002 and ISO 639-2:1998. The languages of publications are indicated if they are different from enquiry languages.