Facts

Permanent Delegation of Sweden to the OSCE
Obere Donaustraße 49-51
1020 Vienna

Tel: +43 (1) 217 53-0
Fax: +43 (1) 217 53-380
E-mail: osse-del.wien
@foreign.ministry.se

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Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

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Sweden and the OSCE

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is due to many participating states an important instrument to create long-term security in Europe. The OSCE was established in the early 1970s as a forum for ongoing political negotiations between east and west, called the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). In 1993, the Conference was given the status of a regional organisation within the UN, under Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. In 1995, the CSCE changed its name to the OSCE with its headquarters in Vienna.

The OSCE works with security issues from a broad perspective. The point of departure for the organisation's activities is the comprehensive concept of security that includes the politico-military dimension, the human dimension (democracy and human rights) and the economic and environmental dimension. An increasing amount of the organisation's work deals with issues extending over all three dimensions, such as trafficking in human beings, terrorism and border surveillance.

55 participating states

The OSCE is the only security policy cooperation organ in Europe in which all European states as well as the United States, Canada and the countries of Central Asia participate on equal terms.

Summits - meetings of the participating countries' heads of state and government - are the highest decision-making bodies of the OSCE. The Ministerial Council is the second highest decision-making body of the organisation after the Summit. This Council, also called the Ministerial Meeting, normally convenes once a year at foreign minister level.

Everyday activities of the organisation are led by the Permanent Council in Vienna. Here the participating states are represented by their OSCE ambassadors who meet every week (on Thursday). Under the Permanent Council are a number of working groups, convening practically every day.

Sweden and the OSCE

Sweden is especially interested in the comprehensive field activities and conflict prevention of the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The purpose of OSCE field missions is not only to prevent conflicts, safeguard respect for human rights, promote democracy and the principles of the rule of law but also to mediate in conflicts that have already emerged and participate in political reconstruction efforts when conflicts have ceased.

Sweden is also especially interested in police-cooperation through the OSCE. Swedish policemen and police-instructors are working in Croatia, Kyrgystan, Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro (and Kosovo).

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