G/TBT/GEN/290  
 
20 April 2020 
(20-3140) Page: 1/3 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
RECENT ACTIVITIES BY  UNECE  
INFORMATION PROVIDED  BY THE  UNITED NATIONS ECONO MIC COMMISSION FOR E UROPE  
This document contains information provided by  UNECE  at the TBT Committee meeting  of 
26-27 February  2020 under Agenda Item 5 (Observers).  
 
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1  UNECE ACTIVITIES REL ATED TO STANDARDS AN D TECHNICAL REGULATI ONS  
UNECE hosts several standards setting bodies – including the World Forum for Harmonization 
of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) and the United Nations Centre for Tr ade Facilitation and e -Business 
(UN/CEFACT) among others. Additionally, a unique body, the Working Party on Regulatory 
Cooperation and Standardization Policies – or Working Party 6 (WP.6) - develops and disseminates 
best practice related to the development  and implementation of technical regulations, 
standardization policies, and policies related to quality infrastructure as well as conformity 
assessment and market surveillance. It encourages and supports regulatory cooperation among 
members in specific sec tors.  
The next, 30th annual meeting of the WP.6 will be held from 2 to 3 November 2020. UNECE 
renews its invitation to representatives of member States and diplomatic missions – including from 
countries that are not members of the UNECE – as well as other  interested stakeholders to actively 
participate.  
The present document summarizes recent activities of WP.6 that are of interest to the TBT 
Committee.  
2  UNECE ACTIVITIES ON "STANDARDS FOR THE SD GS" 
The focus of WP.6 is to promote the use of standards and all other components of the national 
and international quality infrastructure system as a foundation of sustainable development and of 
international trade as a means of implementation of the SDGs of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.  
Under this priority, UNECE launched the "Standards for the SDGs Portal 
https://standards4sdgs.unece.org  which offers users:  
• a tool that allows users to search among more than 1000 standards to identify those that 
can be us ed to achieve 4 of the 17 SDGs  
• a collection of case studies from countries, cities and regions that have successfully used 
standards for sustainability, and  
• supporting online training materials that will be available during first quarter of 2020.  
A brochure  is available online and in print providing further details.  G/TBT/GEN/290  
 
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  3  GENDER -RESPONSIVE ST ANDARDS INITIATIVE  
The initiative aims to strength en the use of standards and technical regulations as tools to 
attain SDG 5 "Achieve Gender Equality and Empower all Women and Girls" and to integrate a gender 
lens in the development of both standards and technical regulations1. Three years of broad 
consul tation resulted in the adoption of the " Declaration on Gender Responsive Standards and 
Standards Development ".  
The declaration has now been signed by international and regional standards bodies (i.e. ISO, 
IEC, ITU, CEN/CENELEC, ARSO) as well as over 45 national standards bodies worldwide .  
UNECE encourages member States to sensitize their standards bodies to become signatories 
and to participate actively in the ongoing activities. A brochure available on the UNECE website  
provides further details.  
In this context, UNECE looks forward to the WTO Workshop on the role of gender in 
development of standards and technical regulations, which will be held on 11 May 2019 as part of  
8th Triennial Review and stands ready to assist in the organization of the workshop. In preparing for 
the event, member States may wish to refer to the UNECE volume on "Gender Responsive 
Standards"  which provides an analytical backdrop to mainstreaming gender in the development and 
implementation of standards.  
On 19 March, UNECE invites interested parties to attend a Round table on Re -Tooling fo r 
Sustainability , which is a side event of the UNECE Regional Forum on Sustainable Development  for 
the UNECE region. The Round table will discuss possible actions by international organizations to 
ensure that the full potential of standardization for the SDGs is realized.  
WP.6 has planned four training sessions on identifying gender bias in standardization from 
2020 to 2022 that will be announced on the website of the Working Party .  
4  SECTORAL INITIATIVE ON CYBER SECURITY  
Another area of potential interest for members of the WTO TBT Committee is the "Sectoral 
Initiative on Cyber -Security" which promotes the convergence of national technical regulations 
currently in place, or yet to be put in place, in this s ector towards a shared framework that is based 
on a risk -based approach and other international best practices.  
This initiative is being developed by UNECE in partnership with the International 
Electrotechnical Commission. It aims at reducing barriers to trade for components, equipment, 
qualified persons and services, encourage competition, increase market choice and reduce costs.  
It also aims at increasing the level of data protection for banking, health and other essential 
data services and the level of  reliability, continuity, safety and security of critical infrastructures, 
such as electrical energy supply, and other essential services that are the backbone of any national 
economy.  
Interested members of the WTO TBT Committee are invited to read the latest Report on the 
sectoral initiative on cyber security  and participate in the upcoming meetings of the initiative.  
5  MARKET SURVEILLANCE  
At the WP.6 annu al session the new work plan of the Advisory Group on Market Surveillance 
(MARS Group) was adopted. The group will concentrate in 2020 on developing a joint ITC -UNECE 
Guide on Risk Management for border regulatory agencies, continuing the revision of the M arket 
Surveillance Glossary and starting the revision of UNECE Recommendation M on "Use of Market 
Surveillance Infrastructure as a Complementary Means to Protect Consumers and Users against 
Counterfeit Goods ".  
 
1 More information is available at: http://www.unece.org/tradewelcome/steering -committee -on-trade-
capacity -and-standards/tradewp6/thematic -areas/gender -initiative.html . G/TBT/GEN/290  
 
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The 18th annual meeting of the MARS Group wil l be held in Kyrgyzstan from 11 to 12 June. 
UNECE encourages member States to sensitize their market surveillance authorities, not only from 
the region, to participate actively in the ongoing activities and the upcoming meeting.  
6  EDUCATION ON STANDAR DS AND STANDARDS -RELATED IS SUES  
WP.6 has been working on the priority of education on Standards and standards -related issues 
since the 1970s (see dedicated page  on our website). In 2018, it issued a publication on " Bringing 
standardization in University Curricula: Making the case ". The Publication advocates for integrating 
education about standardization into the curricula of educational establishments and presents 
priorities an d directions for future work.  
At the last WP.6 session, a high -level panel with participation by Universities from Europe 
(including Berlin University, Rotterdam School Management, and others), Russia and 
Russian -speaking countries as well as China discuss ed with representatives of the standards 
community how to progress these activities. It was decided to formally establish Group of Experts 
on Education on Standards -Related issues under WP.6 in order to:  
• strengthen cooperation with education institutions i ncluding by means of a student 
exchange network;  
• request a liaison status for UNECE at ISO TC 232 and  
• explore the possibility of co -organizing a meeting with the European Commission network 
of scholars active in research/teaching related to standardisati on. 
UNECE invites member States to involve their academic institutions, in their respective 
countries, to participate in the discussion and complement the compendium of information available 
on existing University programmes and programmes provided by stan dards organizations on 
education on standards and standards -related issues that is available on the UNECE website . 
 
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