The Spanish language is celebrating. 25 years have passed since the first ISO international standards translation working group was created in Spanish.
These groups, known as STTF, were set up to share a single Spanish version of the ISO standards, agreed among the 17 Spanish-speaking countries involved in their translation.
The official languages of ISO standards are English, French and Russian. Having ISO global standards in Spanish makes it easy for companies in Spanish-speaking countries to use and implement them, boosting international trade and exports of their products and services to the benefit of more than 600 million Spanish speakers. Likewise, the early translation of projects under development allows Spanish-speaking experts to get involved in the process of drafting ISO standards, thus giving them a greater say and influence internationally.
The first group, called ISO/TC 176/STTF, was set up in 1999 to translate quality management standards such as ISO 9001 into Spanish. Since then, over 15 groups led by various countries have been established in areas including the environment, conformity assessment, innovation and SDG management, providing an effective response to the new needs of organisations.
150 ISO standards in Spanish
Today there are more than 150 standards published by ISO in Spanish which are crucial for the competitiveness of companies in much of Latin America and Spain. They include standards that help to successfully address the major challenges of society, such as the ISO 53800 Standard to help organisations promote and implement gender equality; the ISO/UNDP PAS 53002 standard that sets guidelines on how to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals; IWA 42 on how to achieve zero net greenhouse gas emissions; the ISO 59004 standard which drives the transition to a circular economy, and IWA 48 that helps hardwire ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles into the organisation's culture.
The group that coordinates all Spanish translation bodies is the ISO/TMBG/STMG "Spanish Translation Management Group", of which national standardisation bodies from 17 Spanish-speaking countries form part, together with the Pan American Standards Commission (COPANT), acting in the capacity of observer. Spain coordinates the ISO/TMBG/STMG through Javier García, Director General of UNE and vice-president of ISO. The Group consists of:
- Argentina-IRAM
- Bolivia-IBNORCA
- Chile-INN
- Colombia-ICONTEC
- Costa Rica-INTECO
- Cuba-NC
- Spain-UNE
- Ecuador-INEN
- El Salvador-OSN
- Guatemala-COGUANOR
- Dominican Republic – INDOCAL
- Honduras – OHN
- Mexico-DGN
- Panama-COPANIT
- Paraguay-INTN
- Peru-INACAL
- Uruguay-UNIT
- COPANT (observer)
