This International Standard contains principles and requirements for the competence, consistency and impartiality of the certification of products (including services; see clause 3.3 of ISO/IEC 17000) and processes and for the bodies providing those activities. Certification bodies operating to this International Standard need not offer all types of product, service or process certification. 1.2 Certification of products, services and processes is a third party conformity assessment activity (see clause 5.5 of ISO/IEC 17000:2004). Bodies performing this activity are therefore third party conformity assessment bodies, (named in this standard "certification body/bodies"). Note 1 A certification body can be non-governmental or governmental (with or without regulatory authority).Note 2 This International Standard can be used as a criteria document for accreditation or peer assessment or other assessment processes.