Appeal for a Dialogue for Peace within the OSCE

^{Below you can read the results of a follow-up action in Vienna 3 -4 December 2025. A number of organizations representing popular movements are still trying to engage in dialogue with the OSCE, a fifty-year-old official association of states. Read and reflect!}

Appeal for a Dialogue for Peace within the OSCE

On the occasion of the 32nd OSCE Ministerial Council 4th/5th of December 2025 in Vienna

In July 2025, the Nordic Peace Alliance (NPA), a network of peace organizations in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, supported by the International Peace Bureau and World Beyond War with support from Austrian and other civil society organizations in many countries, launched its Helsinki+50 People’s declaration on common security and human rights, and delivered the declaration to the OSCE member state embassies in Helsinki. In the hope of facilitating civil society dialogue with elected representatives and officials of states participating in OSCE, we have at a meeting in Vienna December 3rd , 2025 drawn up the following recommendations.

1. BACK TO COMMON SECURITY AND NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT!

We recommend to reconsider the notion of the Helsinki Final Act, that security is “indivisible” and that “common security” according to the OSCE Paris Charter of 1990, means taking into account the security interests of all participating states. This is particularly important given the ongoing new round of nuclear arms race, The OSCE has hitherto ignored the will of the peoples, and thus of the majorities of the members of the civil societies, to get rid of all nuclear weapons. As champions of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) that entered into force 22 January 2021 we cannot fail to raise this issue in our dialogue with the OSCE states. We welcome that Austria, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia have signed the TPNW together with 94 other states, who ratified or signed it. We find it necessary that more states do so.

2. MAKE USE OF THE COURT OF CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION!

We recommend that OSCE returns to being an organisation that promotes mutual understanding and détente. In earlier periods of OSCE’s history, understanding and détente were possible even between ideologically hostile blocs. Therefore, they should also be possible today. The “Convention on Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE“ shall be applied to start a dialogue to end the war in Ukraine.

3. A NEW OSCE SUMMIT – FOR A NEW SECURITY ARCHITECTURE!

15 years have passed since the OSCE Summit in Astana in 2010. We think it’s about time to organise a new OSCE summit of heads of state. That would be a worthy goal of the OSCE. A first step would be according to the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, the Paris Charter of 1990 and the agreements for conciliation within OSCE to take advantage of this OSCE-Conference to initiate a dialogue in the whole OSCE region including the opposing states at war. This with the aim to stop the killing and destruction and to initiate a peace process for Ukraine and the Russian Federation and beyond for a renewed European Security and Cooperation Agreement based on the Helsinki Final Act.

4. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION INSTEAD OF MILITARISATION!

Environmental matters are known to have always been an intrinsic component of the OSCE’s agenda. But the development of the OSCE states is currently dominated by increasing rearmament, militarisation, and militarism. These and the wars increase the negative impact on the natural environment and the Earth’s climate. OSCE is demanded to fully exercise its role as a cooperative body in economic, environmental, and cultural matters.

5. HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION WITHOUT DOUBLE STANDARDS!

Regarding OSCE’s work for human rights, particularly human rights of women, we demand, that double standards when addressing violations of human rights should be abandoned. This includes the Mediterranean region, which had a separate chapter in the Helsinki Final Act. We also emphasize the rights for migrants also included in the Final Act and we find it especially important to defend the human rights of conscientious objectors in all countries.

6. PARTICIPATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE OSCE!

States and the OSCE have to protect and to promote civic space ensuring participation applying democratic principles to respect the independence and freedom of expression.

7. STRENGTHENING THE OSCE!

Military blocs are no lasting solutions to security problems. We demand that the OSCE must be strengthened in its efforts to achieve common security for the participating states.

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On behalf of the people in the participating states of the OSCE longing for peace, Vienna 3rd of Dec. 2025

Nordic Peace Alliance

International Peace Bureau – IPB

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom-WILPF Austria

AbFaNG – Aktionsbündnis für Frieden, Aktive Neutralität und Gewaltfreiheit

Asking for contact: contact@abfang.org, info@helsinkiplus50.org