The General Assembly of the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers' Association (ICoCA) has approved a Certification Procedure for its industry members with no dissenting votes.  The Certification Procedure represents a significant milestone in the development of the ICoCA's role as the independent governance and oversight mechanism for the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers (the "Code").  It also satisfies the mandate contained in the ICoCA's Articles of Association that it be capable of certifying under the Code that a member company's systems and policies meet the Code's principles and standards derived from the Code.

The Certification Procedure represents an agreement between the 3 member pillars - private security companies, governments, and civil society - to harmonize the Code with newly developed and emerging national and international standards for the private security industry.  Under the Procedure, the Board of the ICoCA assesses and recognizes standards that are consistent with the Code and defines additional information relative to the human rights and humanitarian law impact of PSC operations that it needs, to assess whether a company's systems and policies meet the requirements of the Code.  To that end, the ICoCA Board has identified ANSI/ASIS PSC.1 2012 (http://www.acq.osd.mil/log/PS/p_vault/item_1997-PSC_1_STD.PDF) and ISO 28007 (http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=42146) as the first two standards to be assessed for recognition, and anticipates being able to publish its recognition of ANSI/ASIS PSC.1-2012 in the coming weeks, with its analysis of ISO 28007 to follow soon thereafter.

For more information visit www.icoca.ch or email the ICoCA Secretariat at mailto:[email protected]