This International Standard specifies the procedures to be followed in preparing, publishing and maintaining a register of cultural specifications for computer use, including freeform narrative cultural elements specifications, and POSIX Locales and Charmaps conforming to ISO/IEC 9945-2. The registry is in printed and electronic form, and the text of the cultural specifications are recorded in a way that is independent of any coded character set.

Each cultural element registration shall have unique identifiers in a particular standard format defined below in 6.8. A numeric identifier and a token identifier shall be assigned to each registered cultural element specification, POSIX Locale, Charmap and Repertoire-map. These identifiers are for unique identification of the cultural specification, and intended to be used with POSIX locale handling mechanisms and possibly other locale and charmap usage, such as in programming languages, database handling and communication protocols and for identification and specification by human operators.

The field of application of this International Standard is to provide reference for implementers, procurers, users, and standardization organizations, to determine cultural requirements in a given cultural environment. Registered items using certain POSIX formal specification methods can also be used by the POSIX Operating System and other software capable of using such specifications.