IEC, founded in 1906, is the first international electrotechnical standardization institution of the world, headquartered in Geneva. After the establishment of ISO in 1947, IEC is merged into ISO as electrical department, but maintains independence technically, financially. According to the new agreement between ISO and IEC in 1976, the two organizations are legally independent organizations, IEC is responsible for the electrical and electronic fields of international standardization and work in other areas is responsible by ISO.
The purpose of IEC is to promote international cooperation on the standardization of electrical and electronic fields and enhance mutual understanding. To achieve this goal, publishing a variety of publications, including international standards, and hoped that the National Committees use these international standards when their national conditions permit. Working areas of IEC includes electrical technologies of electrical, electronic, telecommunications and nuclear energy.
The highest authority of the IEC is Council. There are currently 53 member states, known as IEC National committees, each country can only have one institution as its members. Each Member State are members of the Council, the Council meeting once a year, called the IEC annual meeting, held alternately in each member states. Executive Committee deals with the matters assigned by the Council.
IEC technical work is charged by the Executive Committee (CA), in order to improve work efficiency, CA divided into A, B, C three groups, processing simultaneously in different areas of standards development and coordinating problems. There are currently 104 IEC technical committees and 143 sub-technical committees. China became the IEC Executive Committee members in 1957, in 1990 and 2002 hosted the 54th IEC and 66th Annual Meeting.
IEC has 3 Certification committees, namely the International Electrotechnical Commission Quality Assessment System for Electronic Components (IECQ), Worldwide System for Conformity Testing and Certification of Electrotechnical Equipment and Components (IECEE), IEC Scheme for Certification to Standards for Electrical Equipment for Explosive Atmospheres (IECEX). In order to develop an unified criteria for certification, IEC also established in 1996 Conformity Assessment Board (CAB), responsible for the development, including system certification and a series of certification and accreditation guidelines.
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