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The Metre Convention
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  Member States and Associates |  General Conference on Weights and Measures |  CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement |  Relations with other international bodies |  World Metrology Day |   
 
The Convention of the Metre (Convention du Mètre) is a treaty that created the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), an intergovernmental organization under the authority of the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) and the supervision of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM). The BIPM acts in matters of world metrology, particularly concerning the demand for measurement standards of ever increasing accuracy, range and diversity, and the need to demonstrate equivalence between national measurement standards.

The Convention was signed in Paris in 1875 by representatives of seventeen nations. As well as founding the BIPM and laying down the way in which the activities of the BIPM should be financed and managed, the Metre Convention established a permanent organizational structure for member governments to act in common accord on all matters relating to units of measurement.

The Convention, modified slightly in 1921, remains the basis of international agreement on units of measurement. The BIPM now has fifty-five Member States, including all the major industrialized countries.

     
 
 
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Member States and Associates
General Conference on Weights and Measures: CGPM
CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement: CIPM MRA
Relations with other international bodies
World Metrology Day: 20th May

Resolutions of the CGPM
Chain of responsibility  (the organizational structure of the BIPM)
Text of the Metre Convention  (in French)
The benefits of participating in the BIPM  (open letter from the Director of the BIPM)
Services available to Associate States and Economies of the CGPM, and their participation in the CIPM MRA: document CIPM/05-05
Site for Directors of NMIs of Member States:    (restricted access)
Site for Directors of NMIs of Associates:    (restricted access)
Site for Representatives of States Parties to the Metre Convention:    (restricted access)
Procedure for a State to become a Member of the BIPM
Procedure for a State or Economy to become an Associate of the General Conference
 
     
 
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