It was established in Helsinki on August 1, 1975 by the heads of 35 states of Europe, the United States and Canada by signing the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the so-called Helsinki Accords.
In the Act, the signatory countries agreed
- On the inviolability of the borders established in Europe as a result of the Second World War
- On the peaceful settlement of disputes, notifying each other of military exercises and major troop movements
- On cooperation in the economy, in science, in the field of environmental protection
- On observance by all states of fundamental human rights and freedoms
The OSCE is called upon to monitor the implementation of these commitments,
that is
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Control the spread of armed forces and weapons
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Make efforts to prevent interstate conflicts
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Protect human rights
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Maintain a democratic electoral process
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Oversee environmental and economic security on the continent
Its main institutions are
- Permanent Council under the leadership of the current chairman, who is elected for a year. Advice
- meets weekly in Vienna.
- Forum for Security Co-operation, meets weekly in Vienna.
- Office for National Minorities, headed by the High Commissioner. Based in The Hague
- Bureau for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. Located in Warsaw.
- OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. It meets for regular session once a year in the first ten days of July.
- Periodically held meeting of the heads of state and government of the OSCE countries (summit).
- Annual Council of Foreign Ministers
The official languages of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are English, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, French
In recent years, however, the OSCE's credibility has declined. The organization has not been able to prevent a single armed conflict in Europe, from the Balkan wars to Ukraine. There are sharp disagreements between the OSCE and Russia, which accuses the Organization of "serving the interests of individual states and groups", "double standards" and "unwillingness to take into account the realities and characteristics of individual states." In turn, in 2012, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution “Legality in Russia: the case of Sergei Magnitsky”, and in 2014 stated that the Russian Federation violated the Helsinki principles in its relations with Ukraine, the OSCE refused to send its representatives to
The abbreviation "OSCE" stands for " Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe"English "OSCE" - " Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe". Was established in Finland in the city of Helsinki 1 august 1975 years. This organization includes 35 countries of Europe.In the Helsinki Accords, the states agreed:
- On the observance by all countries of the rights and freedoms of their citizens.
- On the peaceful resolution of disputes, as well as on the notification of major troop movements and exercises.
- On cooperation in the field of environmental protection, in science, in the economy.
- On the inviolability of borders, following the results of the Second World War.
The OSCE was created to monitor the implementation of these commitments.
That is:
- Monitor economic and environmental security on the continent.
- Protect human rights.
- Track electoral violations.
- Try to prevent conflicts between countries.
- Monitor the spread of armaments and armed forces.
The main institutions of the OSCE are:
- The Permanent Council meets every week in Vienna under the leadership of a chairman who is elected for a year.
- The Bureau for Human Rights and Democratic Institutions is located in Warsaw.
- The High Commissioner for National Minorities is based in The Hague.
- The Forum for Security Cooperation meets every week in the Austrian capital.
- The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly meets once a year in the first ten days of July.
- A summit of the heads of governments and states of the OSCE countries is being held.
The official languages of the OSCE are: French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, English
Recently, the authority of this organization has declined quite noticeably. Since it is already obvious that OSCE could not prevent more than one war, starting with the conflicts that occurred after the collapse of the USSR and ending with the most recent one in Ukraine.
Russia has taken a very tough stance against OSCE and accuses it of double standards, pandering to serving the interests of individual groups and states and not wanting to take into account the peculiarities and realities of individual countries.
It is worth recalling the highly controversial resolution "the case of Sergei Magnitsky", and already in 2014 year announced that Russia had violated the fundamental Helsinki principles in relations with Ukraine. The OSCE flatly refused to send its representatives to a referendum in Crimea. It is believed that representatives of this organization are neutral observers of the civil war in Ukraine.
OSCE staff member about Ukrainian military humor video
The initiative of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to develop a European Security Treaty and reforming the OSCE will be the central topics for the Russian side of the upcoming meeting of the council of foreign ministers of the organization on December 4-5 in Helsinki, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) (Organization for Security and Co‑operation in Europe (OSCE) is an international regional political association of 56 states of Europe, Central Asia and North America based on common goals and principles of security and cooperation. Founded in 1975 year in the form of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).
The OSCE (until January 1, 1995 - CSCE), recognized as a regional agreement within the meaning of Chapter VIII of the UN Charter, is considered as one of the main organizations for the peaceful settlement of disputes in the region of its operation, one of the key tools for early warning, conflict prevention, regulation crises and post-conflict reconstruction.
The OSCE operates on the basis of the concept of common and comprehensive security, which combines three dimensions - military-political, economic, environmental and humanitarian; guided by the principles of equal partnership, solidarity and transparency. All participating States have equal status.
Governing Bodies discuss security issues of concern to states and make decisions on these issues. All decisions are made by consensus. They are not legally binding, but carry the political obligations of States.
The supreme body of the OSCE is summits, which are held by agreement of states, as a rule, once every two or three years, depending on the requirements of the international political situation. In years when summits are not held, meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CMFA) are held.
The permanent governing body of the OSCE is permanent council meeting in Vienna at the level of Permanent Representatives of the participating States. Created by the decision of the Rome Ministerial Council in 1993.
The coordinating role in the work of the organization and its collective bodies is played by the current chairman OSCE, whose functions are entrusted to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the presiding state.
Military-political issues, including disarmament, arms control, confidence-building measures, etc., are discussed at Forum for Security Cooperation OSCE (FSB), which meets in Vienna weekly at the level of state representatives. The Forum was established in 1992 by the decision of the Helsinki Summit.
On Economic Forum The OSCE, which convenes annually in Prague, deals with topical issues of pan-European economic and environmental cooperation.
Human dimension issues are discussed at the annual Humanitarian Review Conferences held in Warsaw.
OSCE Secretariat located in Vienna. Headed by the General Secretary. Consists of seven divisions. These are: the office of the Secretary General; center for conflict prevention; coordinator of economic and environmental activities; senior police adviser; Department of Support Services and Budget; department of human resources; Prague office (archive).
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has been working in Warsaw since 1990. Engaged in assistance in holding elections and monitoring them, supporting democratic institutions, NGOs, human rights, etc.
High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) operates since 1992 in The Hague. A tool for preventive diplomacy. Its main task is to prevent conflicts on ethnic grounds at the earliest possible stage.
Representative on Freedom of the Media has been operating since 1997 in Vienna. Provides assistance to governments of states in the development of a free press.
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly established in 1991 as an independent parliamentary structure. Consists of parliamentarians from OSCE countries who meet twice a year for summer and winter sessions in one of the participating States. Assembly resolutions are not binding on governments.
There are 17 missions and field presences of the Organization in the OSCE space. The headquarters of the OSCE is located in Vienna (Austria).
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
, Italian And Spanish
Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir
media freedom
Former name - "Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe" (CSCE) - (CSCE: English. Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe, fr. ).
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✪ Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
✪ Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
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The "Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe" was convened as a permanent international forum of representatives of 33 European states, as well as the United States and Canada, to develop measures to reduce military confrontation and strengthen security in Europe.
The meeting was held in three stages:
- July 3 - 7, 1973 - Helsinki - meeting of ministers of foreign affairs,
- September 18, 1973 - July 21, 1975 - Geneva - proposals, amendments and agreement on the text of the Final Act,
- July 30 - August 1, 1975 in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, the heads of 33 states signed the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Agreements).
The development of the agreements reached was consolidated at the meetings of the participating states:
- 1977-1978 - Belgrade,
- 1980-1983 - Madrid,
- November 19-21, 1990 - Paris meeting of heads of state and government of the CSCE participating states. Here was signed Charter of Paris for a New Europe(proclaiming the end of the Cold War), concluded Treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe(CFE), a joint declaration of 22 states (members of NATO and the Warsaw Pact) was adopted, the current three-stage mechanism of political consultations was created: summit meetings, the Council of Foreign Ministers (CMFA), the Committee of Senior Officials.
- September 10 - October 4, 1991 - Moscow Third Final Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE (the first was held in 1989 in Paris, the second - in 1990 in Copenhagen). A document was adopted, which for the first time states that issues related to human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law are of an international nature, and commitments in the field of the human dimension do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the CSCE member states. Conference sur la securité et la cooperation en Europe
- 1992 - Helsinki Summit. The document " Calling a time of change”, which marked the beginning of the transformation of the CSCE from a forum of predominantly political dialogue between participating states into a trans-regional organization aimed at maintaining military-political stability and developing cooperation “from Vancouver to Vladivostok”. The CSCE received wide powers and opportunities to take practical measures to prevent and resolve local and regional conflicts.
- 1992 - Stockholm meeting of the Foreign Ministry Council. The post of Secretary General of the CSCE was established.
- 1993 - Rome meeting of the Foreign Ministry Council. Accepted Declaration on Aggressive Nationalism- the source of modern conflicts. The Permanent Committee of the CSCE, an institution of permanent representatives of the participating states, has been created.
- 1994 - Budapest Summit. A decision was made to rename the CSCE from January 1, 1995 to the OSCE - Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. A political declaration was adopted Towards a true partnership in a new era”, an agreement to start developing a model of common and comprehensive security for Europe in the 21st century, military-political agreements (“Code of Conduct on Military-Political Aspects of Security”, “Principles Governing Nonproliferation”, etc.).
- 1995 - Budapest meeting of the Foreign Ministers.
- December 2-3, 1996 - Lisbon meeting of heads of state and government of the OSCE participating States. The Declaration of the Lisbon Summit and the Declaration " On the Model of Common and Comprehensive Security for Europe in the 21st Century”, which emphasizes the need to build a united, peaceful and democratic Europe without dividing lines. A document was adopted on updating the CFE Treaty (Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe). At the initiative of Russia, participating States have committed themselves to exercise restraint with regard to their military efforts, including levels of weapons and their deployment. The documents "Conceptual framework for arms control" and "Development of the agenda of the Forum for Security Cooperation" were adopted, which consolidated the role of arms control as an important tool for ensuring stability in Europe. In the work of the OSCE, the focus on the conflicts that exist in the former USSR and Yugoslavia is becoming more and more noticeable.
- 1997 - Copenhagen meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the OSCE. A decision was made to start work on a Charter for European Security.
- 1998 - OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Oslo. A Declaration on the Role of the OSCE in the Creation of a New System of European Security was adopted. The Declaration includes provisions on OSCE police operations. At the meeting, considerable attention was paid to the problems of Kosovo, conflict situations in the CIS.
- November 18-19, 1999 - Istanbul meeting of heads of state and government of the OSCE participating States. The Russian delegation was headed by Boris Yeltsin. Accepted Charter for European Security, an agreement on the adaptation of the CFE Treaty, the final Political Declaration and the modernized Vienna Document on Confidence Building Measures as a basis for further work. Russia has made political commitments to withdraw troops from Georgia and Transnistria.
- 2000 - Ministerial meeting in Vienna. The Declaration "On the Role of the OSCE in South-Eastern Europe", the decision to strengthen the OSCE's activities in the fight against trafficking in human beings were adopted, and a document was approved to limit the illicit trafficking and proliferation of small arms and light weapons. Due to fundamental differences, the ministers failed to adopt the final general political document of the meeting - the ministerial declaration.
- 2001 - Ministerial meeting in Bucharest. A ministerial declaration, an action plan to combat terrorism, a document on strengthening the role of the OSCE as a forum for political dialogue, statements on regional issues (Georgia, Moldova, Nagorno-Karabakh, South-Eastern Europe and Central Asia) were adopted.
- June 12, 2002 - Lisbon International Conference. The final document "Preventing and Combating Terrorism" was adopted with an assessment of the role of international and regional organizations in countering terrorism.
- 2003 - Ministerial meeting in Maastricht (Netherlands). Decisions were approved in the field of military-political security (on the destruction of surplus conventional ammunition, on strengthening control over the proliferation of man-portable air defense systems, the Guide to Best Practices in the Field of Small Arms and Light Weapons). Since 2003, in connection with the conflict between Russia and a number of OSCE member states, political declarations have not been adopted. In Maastricht, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that Russia must comply with the 1999 Istanbul agreements (on the withdrawal of troops from Georgia and Transnistria) and this should be indicated in the declaration. Russia blocked the document.
- January 15, 2004 - meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council - Russia proposed to change the existing view of the OSCE as "a tool for serving the interests of individual states and groups" and to make efforts to achieve the main goal of the OSCE - the creation of an indivisible, common European, security space with common principles and rules for all.
- 2004 - Ministerial meeting in Sofia coincided with the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine. The final document was blocked.
- July 3, 2004 - a statement of the CIS countries was adopted in Moscow, accusing the OSCE of "practice of double standards" and "unwillingness to take into account the realities and peculiarities of individual states." Russia called for the reorganization of the OSCE and "returning it to its original principles." Russia blocked the adoption of the OSCE budget for 2005 for three months, demanding a reduction in its share in it, and declared its unwillingness to finance projects contrary to Russian interests. As a result, the share of the Russian Federation remained at the level of 9%.
- 2005 - a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Ljubljana (Slovenia) ended without the adoption of a final declaration. The confrontation between Russia and some OSCE members continues, demanding from it the withdrawal of troops from Transnistria and condemning it for the upcoming bill on non-profit organizations, according to which control over them by the state will be tightened. Russia, for its part, has lashed out at the activities of the OSCE in recent years, especially the activities of OSCE observers who monitor elections in the CIS. The Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov presented his plan - the "Roadmap for OSCE Reform". Lavrov accused the OSCE observers of the lack of a single standard in assessing the elections. Recently, observers from the CIS and from the OSCE give directly opposite assessments of the elections in which they are present (presidential elections in Ukraine, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan). The OSCE Reform Roadmap was adopted. At the meeting, the GUAM countries - Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova spoke out against Russia. On the eve of the OSCE forum, the GUAM chairmanship passed to Moldova, and it was she, who was more interested in Russia fulfilling the Istanbul agreements (on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia and Transnistria), who spoke at the OSCE meeting on behalf of GUAM. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Boris Tarasyuk said that the GUAM countries will continue to act together.
- December 5, 2006 - at a meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council Sergey Lavrov for the first time announced the possibility of the Russian Federation leaving the OSCE if it does not shift the focus of its activities from monitoring the observance of human rights to military-political cooperation and the economy.
- October 26, 2007 - Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan submitted to the OSCE a draft resolution restricting the work of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. On November 30, at the summit of the Foreign Ministers of the OSCE countries, the resolution was rejected.
- November 16, 2007 - refused to send its observers to the parliamentary elections in Russia.
- February 7, 2008 - refused to send their observers to the presidential elections in Russia.
- July 3, 2009 - the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution "On the reunification of a divided Europe: the promotion of human rights and civil liberties in the OSCE region in the XXI century".
- December 1, 2010 - in the city of Astana (Kazakhstan), after an 11-year break, the OSCE summit was held.
Structure
The main organs of the organization are:
- Summit (Summit) - periodically held meeting of the heads of state and government of the OSCE countries.
- The Council of Foreign Ministers is an annual (except for the year of summit meetings) meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the OSCE participating States.
- Permanent Council under the leadership of the current chairman (English Chairperson-in-Office, CiO), who holds this post for a year. Conducts regular political consultations and makes decisions (meets weekly in Vienna).
- Forum for Security Cooperation - regularly discusses arms control and CSBMs (meets weekly in Vienna).
- High Commissioner for National Minorities
- The Representative on Freedom of the Media - oversees media developments in the 57 OSCE participating States.
Management
Current Chairman
General Secretary
Secretary General - Heads the Secretariat. Appointed by the Council of Ministers for a period of 3 years:
- Wilhelm Hoyink (1993-1996)
- Giancarlo Aragon (1996-1999)
- Jan Kubish (1999-2005)
- Marc Perrin de Brichambaut (2005-2011)
- Lamberto Zanier (2011-2017)
- Thomas Greminger
Member States
OSCE participants
State | State |
---|---|
Austria | Malta |
Azerbaijan | Moldova |
Albania | Monaco |
Andorra | Mongolia |
Armenia | Netherlands |
Belarus | Norway |
Belgium | Poland |
Bulgaria | Portugal |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | Russia |
Vatican | Romania |
Great Britain | San Marino |
Hungary | Serbia |
Germany | Slovakia |
Greece | Slovenia |
Georgia | USA |
Denmark | Tajikistan |
Ireland | Turkmenistan |
Türkiye | |
Spain | Uzbekistan |
The content of the article
ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND CO-OPERATION IN EUROPE (OSCE)(Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE) is a unique regional forum that unites the United States, Canada, almost all European countries and former Soviet republics, until 1994 known as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).
From CSCE to OSCE.
The forerunner of the OSCE as an international organization proper was the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, convened in 1973 on the initiative of the USSR to overcome tensions in relations between East and West. The United States, Canada and most European states with different political, economic and social systems participated in its work. The main goal of the participating countries was to strengthen international detente and stability on the European continent, develop mutual understanding between peoples and establish international private contacts in the field of culture. At the Budapest Summit of the CSCE in 1994, it was decided to rename the CSCE to the OSCE. Thus, the OSCE was a logical continuation of the CSCE. Therefore, in journalism and scientific literature, the CSCE/OSCE is often written as two organically complementary phenomena in international relations.
Significance.
The political significance of the OSCE lies primarily in its uniqueness compared to other international governmental organizations in Europe. It is practically the only European security organization directly involved in early warning, conflict resolution and post-crisis recovery in crisis regions, as well as preventive diplomacy, election observation, and environmental security in Europe.
The founding document of the CSCE/OSCE is the Helsinki Final Act, signed on August 1, 1975 by the USSR, the USA, Canada and 33 European states. This document was intended to consolidate the existing "status quo" on the European continent and continue further movement along the path of detente in relations between the West and the East. It contained the basic principles that determined the norms of mutual relations and cooperation of the participating countries and consisted of three sections (or three "baskets"), corresponding to the number of the main tasks of the Meeting.
The first "basket" dealt with general issues related to the problems of European security. The second "basket" was devoted to the issues of economic, scientific and technical cooperation and cooperation in the field of ecology and environmental conservation. The third included humanitarian issues and the problem of protecting human rights (VII, VIII and XI principles). It caused the greatest resistance on the part of the USSR, since such a formulation of the problem transferred the ideological conflict between the two blocs to a completely different plane. The issue of protecting the political rights and freedoms of citizens was the "weak link" of the Soviet system, and the signing of the Helsinki Act became an international recognition, although not implemented in practice, of the right to exist for a dissident movement and political opposition in the USSR. Later, this was used more than once by the American leadership to exert diplomatic pressure on the USSR. According to many analysts, the adoption of the Final Act not only symbolized the era of "détente", but also led to the "re-ideologization" of the confrontation between East and West, transferring it to the plane of observance of human rights. Nevertheless, the very fact of convening the Conference contributed to overcoming tensions in the Old World and establishing a regime for the free exchange of ideas, information, as well as the free movement of people. The Helsinki Act also became the basis for the adoption of all subsequent basic documents of this organization.
A distinctive feature of the CSCE/OSCE is the universal nature of this organization: not only almost all European states, but also the USSR, the USA and Canada became its participants, and the main basic provisions of the Conference/Organization are aimed at ensuring security in Europe. It is quite obvious that the universal nature of the CSCE/OSCE was also ensured by procedural rules, namely: the principle of consensus in decision-making and the principle of equality of participating countries. The Final Act was also seen as documentary confirmation of the existing balance of power between the two military-political blocs (NATO and the Warsaw Pact) and the non-aligned countries.
After the collapse of the USSR and the end of the ideological confrontation between West and East, former adversaries attempted to turn the CSCE (and then the OSCE) into a pan-European organization involved in maintaining security in Europe, resolving conflicts, developing new arms control agreements, as well as taking measures to strengthen military confidence. It was at this time that such key documents as the Charter of Paris for a New Europe, the Treaty on Conventional Arms in Europe (CFE), the Open Skies Treaty, documents on the "third generation of confidence and security building measures" and other agreements were developed and signed. Thus, the participating countries tried to "adjust" the CSCE/OSCE to the new realities that have developed on the continent after the end of the Cold War.
NATO's eastward expansion and the increased level of cooperation between the North Atlantic Alliance and Russia have led to significant geopolitical changes, without, however, calling into question the role of the OSCE as the only pan-European international governmental organization. This organization is practically inseparable from the “key link” between NATO and the EU; it is often used by individual participating countries for indirect “voicing” their own national interests. For example, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mikhail Gorbachev and Francois Mitterrand tried to oppose the OSCE to NATO. In fact, Paris and Moscow were not interested in further strengthening NATO, as they did not have sufficient organizational resources to influence the decision-making process within NATO, which is heavily influenced by the United States. Moreover, in 1994, French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur proposed making the CSCE/OSCE the main peacekeeping organization in resolving the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Russia also supported this position and until the 1999 Istanbul summit tried to "promote" the OSCE as the main actor in the field of European security. However, criticism of Russian actions in Chechnya at the OSCE Istanbul Summit, as well as Moscow's increased cooperation with NATO, eventually led to a partial loss of Russian interest in the OSCE as an organization for maintaining security in Europe. At the beginning of the 21st century Russia pursues a pragmatic foreign policy and recognizes NATO as a key organization in the field of European security.
It should be noted that the transformation of the CSCE/OSCE in the 1990s was a spontaneous response to new security challenges. In particular, the collapse of the USSR caused not only an increase in the number of participants in the Helsinki process, but also significantly expanded the range of tasks to be solved by the CSCE, for the implementation of which new institutions were created. At the same time, the resolution of ethno-political conflicts on the European continent has become the main goal of the OSCE. However, real peacekeeping presupposes not only the political will of all participating countries, but also the existence of appropriate institutions. Thus, at a meeting in Prague (January 1992) of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the participating countries, it was decided to strengthen the role of the Conflict Prevention Center in planning peacekeeping missions. Basically, the missions of the Organization pursue two tasks: settlement or prevention of conflicts on the territory of the OSCE member states and informing about crisis situations. As a rule, missions differ from each other in the number of personnel involved (from 3 to 600 people) and in specific tasks determined by the respective mandate of the OSCE. At the beginning of the 21st century The OSCE maintains 8 missions in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, Macedonia, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and 7 offices in Minsk, Ukraine, Baku, Alma-Ata, Bishkek, Tashkent and Dushanbe. However, the missions deployed by the OSCE in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and in the Transcaucasus received the greatest fame: it was their activities that were covered in the international media and specialized political science publications. According to Russian and foreign political scientists, it is in these regions that the OSCE tried to play the role of an active peacekeeping organization. However, in both cases the OSCE played a secondary role and was mainly involved in post-conflict resolution. Thus, for example, the main task of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (established on December 8, 1995) was to monitor compliance with the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Dayton Accords”) and to strengthen peace, democracy and stability in the region. As in Bosnia, the OSCE mission in Kosovo played a leading role in issues related to the reconstruction of the territory, institution building and the strengthening of democracy. In both cases, NATO was directly involved in resolving the conflict, while the OSCE got the difficult and thankless job of post-war settlement and reconstruction. For example, the closure of the OSCE mission in Kosovo at the end of 1998 de facto meant that the organization refused to participate in the settlement of the ethnic conflict between Serbs and Albanians and the transfer of peacekeeping functions to NATO.
The undoubted success of the OSCE in Transcaucasia was the creation of the Minsk Contact Group on Nagorno-Karabakh (1992) to resolve the armed conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The group, which included representatives of Great Britain, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United States and France, dealt with the resolution of the Karabakh conflict, and its observers monitored the observance of a truce between the conflicting parties. In 1993, the Minsk Group proposed a plan for settling the territorial disputes between Baku and Yerevan (the "Updated Schedule"), but these provisions were not accepted by either Armenia or Azerbaijan. Eventually, in 1994, the two sides, mediated by Russia, agreed to honor an informal ceasefire agreement that is in place to this day.
The OSCE High Level Planning Group (HLPG) is developing and promoting a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but, so far, its efforts have not been successful. It should be noted that in this case, the OSCE tried to directly participate in the conflict settlement, but was largely pushed aside by the great powers - the co-chairs of the Minsk Group. In reality, it was the US, Russia and France, not the OSCE, that forced Armenia and Azerbaijan to suspend hostilities.
Operating structures, institutions and budget of the OSCE.
OSCE Permanent Council consists of representatives of the participating States and, in fact, is the main executive body of the OSCE. The Council meets once a week at the Vienna Hofburg Congress Center to discuss the current state of affairs in the OSCE area of territorial responsibility and take appropriate decisions. Like the Council, the Forum for Security Co-operation meets once a week in Vienna to discuss and decide on issues related to the military dimension of pan-European security. In particular this applies Confidence and Security Measures. The Forum also deals with issues related to new security challenges and conflict resolution in the OSCE area of responsibility. In turn, the OSCE Economic Forum meets once a year in Prague to discuss economic and environmental issues affecting the security of the participating countries.
The Summit or OSCE Summit is a periodic meeting of the Heads of State or Government of OSCE member states. The main task of the summits is to determine the political guidelines and priorities for the development of the Organization at the highest level. Each meeting is preceded by a preparatory conference during which diplomats from the contracting parties oversee the implementation of key legal commitments made by the OSCE. They agree on the positions of the participants and prepare basic documents for the upcoming summit. During the existence of the CSCE/OSCE, 6 summits have been held. The most significant were:
Helsinki Summit(1975), culminating in the signing of the Final Act, which is the founding document of the CSCE/OSCE;
paris summit(1990), which culminated in the signing of the Charter for a New Europe and the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. The Charter confirmed the decisions of the OSCE Vienna Meeting (1986) and documented the priority of international law over national law, which further led to the strengthening of separatist movements in the USSR and Eastern Europe;
budapest summit(1994) culminated in a series of institutional reforms. The CSCE was turned into a permanent organization of the OSCE, the contracting parties paid additional attention to the problems of resolving the Karabakh conflict, etc.;
istanbul summit(1999), culminating in the signing of the European Security Charter. During the meeting, the Russian delegation was severely criticized because of Moscow's policy in Chechnya. Russia pledged to reduce its military presence in Transcaucasia and Transnistria.
Council of Foreign Ministers. A kind of "substitute" for summits is the Council of Foreign Ministers (CMFA), which usually meets in those years when there are no Summits. The Ministerial Council also elects the OSCE Secretary General for a three-year term. Its main function is to provide organizational support to the Chairman-in-Office. The Office of the Secretary General provides operational support to the OSCE under the direct supervision of the Secretary General. The powers of the secretariat include: support for OSCE missions and projects; contacts with international governmental and non-governmental organizations; coordination of OSCE policy in the field of economy and environmental protection. The press and information department, administrative, financial services, as well as recruitment, conference organization and information technology services are also under the responsibility of the Secretariat.
In practice, the OSCE is led by the Chairman-in-Office, who is re-elected every year and who is the Minister for Foreign Affairs of one of the countries that are members of the OSCE. The Chairman is responsible for the direct implementation of the decisions taken by the Ministerial Council and the Summits. He also carries out the overall coordination of the activities of the OSCE. The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is composed of approximately 300 deputies representing the legislative branch of the OSCE participating States. The main purpose of the Assembly is parliamentary control and the involvement of European deputies in the activities of the Organization. The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights is, in fact, the main division of the OSCE for monitoring the observance of human rights, basic democratic freedoms in the OSCE participating States. The Bureau is also called upon to assist in the development of demographic institutions in the "zone of responsibility" of the OSCE. In turn, the Representative on Freedom of the Media monitors the development of the situation with the media in the OSCE states and issues the first warning to the governments of the participating States about violations of freedom of speech in their countries. In particular, such a warning was recently issued in 2002 to Turkmenistan.
Within the framework of the OSCE structures dealing with the observance of human rights, attention should be paid to the office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities (The Hague). This unit deals with the early warning of ethnic conflicts that threaten stability, peace on the continent and friendly relations between the participating States of the CSCE.
A special place in the organizational structure of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is occupied by Confidence and Security Building Measures. This program was created with the aim of easing tension and strengthening mutual trust on the European continent. Within its framework, such documents were signed as: a) CFE(Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe), establishing quotas for conventional arms in Europe for contracting parties; Open Skies Treaty, which allows the participating states to exercise mutual control over each other's actions, especially in the field of security. As part of the Confidence and Security Building Measures, the Chairman-in-Office appointed his personal representatives to oversee the implementation of a number of articles of the Dayton Peace Accords. The Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, located in Geneva, was established to resolve conflict situations and disputes between the participating States that have signed the Convention on Conciliation and Arbitration internal to the OSCE.
In 2003 the budget of the OSCE amounted to 185.7 million euros and mainly consists of the membership dues of the participating states. About 84 per cent of all funds are spent on military missions and projects carried out by the Organization in the field.
About 370 employees work directly in the OSCE headquarters, and in various missions and projects of this organization - more than 1,000 international employees and 2,000 citizens of those countries on whose territory these missions are carried out.
According to many experts, the CSCE/OSCE has gone through three main stages in its development. At the first stage, priority was given to human rights and cultural cooperation. The "détente" in relations between the USSR and the United States that began in the 1970s made possible multilateral negotiations on the military aspects of security in Europe. It was during this period (1986–1992) that such documents as the CFE Treaty (1990), the Open Skies Treaty (1992), etc. were signed. Then, the collapse of the USSR radically changed the agenda: the CSCE/OSCE began to pay more and more attention to preventive diplomacy, conflict prevention and crisis management, and the promotion of common democratic values outlined in the Charter of Paris for a New Europe. This was primarily due to a change in the “priority of threats” itself: while the military confrontation along the East-West line is a thing of the past, the intensity of ethnic conflicts in the Balkans and in the CIS countries has increased dramatically.
The OSCE played a certain peacekeeping role in the first half of the 1990s, but after the failures in Yugoslavia, NATO and then the EU were pushed into the background. Lacking either effective tools for pursuing a "peace enforcement" policy or the political will to act, the OSCE has largely been replaced by other actors in European security. The general principle of consensus in an organization consisting of 53 states with different interests also did not contribute to increasing the effectiveness of the CSCE/OSCE.
Failures in peacekeeping did not prevent, however, the Organization from returning in the late 1990s to the problem of observance of human rights, fundamental democratic freedoms and common European values, which is currently the main area of activity of this organization. Online materials - OSCE website: http://www.osce.org
Danila Bochkarev
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