HEART Federation

Global interoperability with regional legitimacy

Why regional stewardship exists

Governance authority, legal obligations, language, culture, public institutions, professional systems, data rules, evidence access, and affected communities differ by region. A single global operator cannot credibly hold every local function.

Federation allows those differences to be governed close to their source without fragmenting HEART into incompatible standards.

Minimum-sufficient structure

An RFE is not legally or institutionally required for every region. It should form only when necessary functions cannot be supplied through lighter, accountable arrangements.

The formation decision considers:

• local Source Profile authority and maintenance;
• public legitimacy and affected-community participation;
• professional and competence governance;
• conformity, Registry, and credential functions actually delegated;
• evidence, privacy, security, and cross-border boundaries;
• fiscal responsibility and continuity; and
• conflicts, withdrawal, correction, and succession.

Explicit delegation

Recognition is function-specific. An RFE has only the roles stated in a current public delegation record. Profile stewardship, professional governance, assessment operations, certification decision, HVC issuance, Registry operation, research, data custody, and fiscal functions are separate delegations.

No RFE is automatically authorized for all functions.

Global core and no-fork rule

RFEs must preserve:

• Seven Axioms v3.0;
• the HEART Standard v2.0 five-field grammar;
• Profile family and document-control semantics;
• formal conformity and HVC meaning;
• Registry status and lineage interoperability; and
• cross-region correction, appeal, and supersession behavior.

Regional sources can produce different requirements and determinations. That is pluralism, not a fork. An RFE may not silently alter the constitutional protections or claim a separate incompatible HEART core.

Data and evidence boundaries

HEART does not impose universal data localization. Data location, transfer, access, retention, privacy, confidentiality, security, and evidence availability follow applicable source authority and risk. Cross-border evidence arrangements must preserve sufficient authorized appraisal without overstating public access.

Fiscal independence

Each RFE must have a viable, transparent operating model that prevents favorable outcomes, credential volume, related-party services, or market products from buying authority. Inter-RFE support must preserve independence, traceability, and local accountability.

Recognition status

Publication of the RFE Specification does not recognize any entity. Recognition requires a competent current decision, explicit delegations, public status, continuing conditions, and Registry treatment when operational.

No RFE is represented on this site as recognized unless a current authoritative record says so.

HEART Cities

A HEART City is a separate local composition: competent municipal authority, Source and Deployment Profiles, Domain Profile composition, affected-person participation and remedy, evidence and data governance, professional assurance, fiscal controls, public status, and any explicit federation delegations. A generic architecture does not designate a city.