The International Accreditation Forum (IAF), the body that oversees the entire world’s ISO certification scheme, has finally released a statement on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The statement originally referred to the “war in Ukraine,” but was then edited overnight to remove the word “war” and call it a “situation.”
The IAF has declined to stop the recognition of accreditations in Russia and Belarus, and instead appears to have crafted its statement specifically to placate Russia. While invoking the IAF’s policy on “neutrality,” the publication appears to put the conflict solely in the lap of Ukraine, without referencing Russia at all. The image used on the IAF post only includes the Ukrainian flag.
Comparison of original IAF statement (l) and revised statement (r)
The statement comes weeks after Oxebridge and many industry stakeholders demanded the IAF honor US, EU, and international sanctions, and stop all accreditation of organizations in Russia and Belarus. IAF Chair Emanuele Riva privately refused, claiming that the IAF’s internal policy on “neutrality” held authority over international law, and that IAF was only held accountable to its corporate “bylaws.” Riva claimed to have consulted an attorney.
Under pressure from its member Accreditation Bodies to remain silent, the IAF continued to do so for weeks. In the interim, many major certification scheme bodies issued statements of their own, some taking direct action to stop accreditation in Russia and Belarus and honor sanctions. This left Riva and the IAF increasingly isolated, and a special Board meeting was held to draft a generic statement to tamp down the criticism.
The resulting statement aligned with the wishes of IAF’s members, including ANAB and UKAS, who direct the Board’s actions. The members were concerned about interruptions in their business dealings with Russia, in particular, and pushed on Riva and Vice-Chair Lori Gillespie to ensure nothing was said against Russia.
Both Riva and Gillespie have financial conflicts of interest which may be driving their actions. Riva works as a VP for the Italian accreditation body ACCREDIA, which accredits the Russian certification body TECT (“Test”); that body has certified sanctioned companies such as Gazprom. Gillespie works as VP of ANAB, which accredits their certification body Russian Register; RR then certifies companies under international sanctions, as well. If the IAF were to honor sanctions, both ANAB and ACCREDIA would lose revenue.
Both ANAB and the IAF are US-based companies, and must follow US sanctions, Presidential Executive Orders, and US law. ANAB is a defense contractor for the US government, and has signed official “reps and certs” documentation under penalty of perjury and criminal prosecution should ANAB be shown to violate them. The current US sanctions are very narrow, and ANAB may be technically compliant, but the US Dept. of Justice is also investigating when companies receive money indirectly from sanctioned companies as part of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) prosecutions. Both IAF and ANAB appear to be receiving a portion of the funds paid to other parties by companies currently listed on the US OFAC sanctions list.
Riva is outside the reach of US law, as he resides in Italy, but ANAB officials cannot say the same.
The full statement reads as follows:
IAF respects the rule of law and human dignity. Our thoughts are with the people who are suffering from the situation of war. We are closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine in order to support our members and accredited conformity assessment activity, while considering that:
1.) Neutrality is fundamental to IAF’s work and existence, even, indeed especially, when members are coming from countries that are engaged in conflict. It is a position that IAF has maintained consistently throughout our history and in accordance with our Bylaws.
2.) Our primary function is to develop a single worldwide program of conformity assessment which reduces risk for organizations and their customers by assuring them that accredited certificates and validation and verification statements may be relied upon.
We fully support all efforts undertaken by the international community to protect people and reach a solution restoring security and compliance with international law in all places in the world.
