Page 478 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS355 Jean-Louis B.
new landmarks, to serve as a framework in which to fulfill their duties.
Such references were maybe not so different from the strictly technical
point of view, but totally different where the concept itself of the role of
statisticians in the society was concerned. The reaction of the statistical
community to this concern was very rapid. The Bureau of the UN
Conference of European Statisticians (CES) decided to organize a
consultation and a workshop during the first semester of 1990 [8]. The ISI
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appointed a representative to the working group that was created to
prepare a document to be submitted to the CES. The terms of reference
of the working group asked it to take into account «in particular the work
done by the ISI on ethical guidelines for statisticians". The result of this
work was the “Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics” that was
endorsed by the 39 session of the CES in April 1992 then adopted by
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one of the Conference’s parent body, the UN Economic Commission for
th
Europe, during its 47 plenary session in April of 1992. Shortly after, it was
recognized that these Principles have a universal value and a global
significance. Following an international consultation process, a milestone
in the history of international statistics was reached when the UN
Statistical Commission (UNSC) at its Special Session in April 1994 adopted
the very same set of principles – with a revised preamble – as the UN
Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. At its 42 session in 2011, the
nd
UNSC acknowledged that the Principles were still as relevant today as they
had been in the past and that no revision of the ten Principles themselves
was necessary. The Commission recommended, however, updating the
preamble in order to take into account new developments since 1994 and
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adopted the revised preamble at its 44 session in 2013. In July 2013 the
UN Economic and Social Council adopted the Principles on UNSC
recommendation and, pursuant to its recommendation, the UN General
Assembly, in its resolution 68/261 of 29 January 2014, endorsed the
Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics [9]. The ISI played an
important role in the preparation, dissemination and popularization of the
Principles that are an important work tool for the Committee on
Professional Ethics, then for the Advisory Ethical Board when instructing
specific files. An important number of papers during ISI sessions, then ISI
World Statistical Congresses, were prepared and presented.
3.5. Official statisticians have long been more than reluctant to engage into
the measurement of “sensitive political issues” [10]. For a long time, they
considered that involving statistics in human rights or democratic
governance assessments would endanger their “scientific neutrality”. This

14 In addition to the ISI representative, there were representatives of Poland (chair), France
(vice chair), Bulgaria, Romania, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.
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