Self-Determination in Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe Instruments

Abstract

This chapter continues the survey of international instruments on self-determination by looking at two key declarations by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE): the Helsinki Final Act 1975 and Paris Charter 1990. The Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe was an important symbol of detente, a certain thawing in Cold War relations between the countries of NATO and the regimes of the Warsaw Pact. The internal aspects of self-determination appeared to be connected to its relationship with the principles of sovereign equality and non-intervention, in principles I and VI, respectively. Many of the relationships between self-determination and other principles, which were mostly theoretical in the Final Act, were being tested at the time of the debate on the Paris Charter in 1990. The Helsinki Final Act and Paris Charter reaffirm the role of legal principles in limiting the application of self-determination.Keywords: Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe; Helsinki Final Act; NATO countries; OSCE; Warsaw Pact