Information Technology - Codes for the Representation of Human Sexes

CSA Group
Standards Development Organisation:
Canadian Standards Association (operating as CSA Group)
Working Program:
View the CSA work program
Designation Number:
CAN/CSA-ISO/IEC 5218-05
Standard Type:
National Standard of Canada - Adoption of International Standard
Standard Development Activity:
Reaffirmation
ICS code(s):
35.040
Status:
Proceeding to development
SDO Comment Period Start Date:
SDO Comment Period End Date:
Posted On:

Scope:

This International Standard specifies a uniform representation of human sexes for the interchange of information.

It is intended to

  • reduce the time required to record and/or format the representation of sexes and transmit the corresponding data;
  • improve clarity and accuracy of interchange;
  • minimize the amount of human intervention required for communicating the representation of sexes; and
  • reduce costs.

This International Standard does not prescribe file sequences, storage media, programming languages, or other features of information processing to be used in its implementation.

This International Standard meets the requirements of most applications that need to code human sexes. It does not provide codes for sexes that may be required in specific medical and scientific applications or in applications that need to code sex information other than for human beings.

This International Standard does not supplant national standards for coding sexes that are designed based upon codes derived from names of sexes in the various languages (for example "M" for "male" and "F" for "female" in the English language). It provides a numeric code that is independent of language-derived codes and as such is intended to provide a common basis for the international exchange of information containing human sex data elements.

Project need:

To review the standard for its 5-year review period

Note: The information provided above was obtained by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) and is provided as part of a centralized, transparent notification system for new standards development. The system allows SCC-accredited Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), and members of the public, to be informed of new work in Canadian standards development, and allows SCC-accredited SDOs to identify and resolve potential duplication of standards and effort.

Individual SDOs are responsible for the content and accuracy of the information presented here. The text is presented in the language in which it was provided to SCC.