Appeal for the spirit of Helsinki!

The Nordic Peace Alliance (NPA), a network of peace organizations in Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Norway, met in Jondal (Norway) in early August to plan cooperation and joint actions. As stated in their appeal below, the NPA is continuing its efforts to revive the “spirit of Helsinki.”

The world and Europe need detente and to build paths for peace. Both between people and with other living beings in the thin membrane of life that is our common home.

More than fifty years ago, the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe contributed with a strong call for detente to disarmament agreements and confidence-building measures, in addition to the importance of cooperation for the economy and protection of the environment and human rights, something that is needed again. The Final Act was signed in Helsinki in 1975 by many states in the West and East of the Northern Hemisphere. It can still be an inspiration to breathe life into the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is the institutional follow-up to the Helsinki Final Act, and to find ways out of the insecurity and lack of cooperation of our time.

The Helsinki Conference and its Final Act were characterized by the signatories’ common understanding that security is indivisible. That it must be so was taken for granted because of the threat of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Today, half a century later, a new, heated and uncontrolled arms race is underway, but the insight and awareness of the indivisibility of security are conspicuous by their absence.

The Helsinki Final Act was also about international scientific, technological and cultural cooperation. Today’s digital tools and networks have not made international cooperation impossible, but on the contrary have created additional conditions for international cooperation, but the political will and the right spirit are missing.

When we want to recreate the spirit of Helsinki, we must pay attention to a growing threat to the future of democracy and thus also international cooperation. The threat consists of attempts to replace political decision-making with so-called artificial intelligence. In the Western world, this is happening by our state authorities handing over their decisions to American companies such as Palantir, whose founders believe that freedom and democracy are no longer compatible. We need international cooperation to stop this dangerous technocratic and anti-democratic tendency with its military and repressive use.

We in the Nordic Peace Alliance have so far turned particularly to movements for peace, the environment and human rights to jointly demonstrate the relevance of the Helsinki Final Act today in all its parts. We are now moving forward and turning particularly to the trade union movement, farmers’ organisations and researchers in the Nordic countries and affected countries. We see it as important that popular movements and the scientific community can work together to create information about the opportunities and risks that changes in the world order can bring. New knowledge and public education are needed about the major shifts taking place in many areas. The Helsinki Final Act constitutes a comprehensive basis that provides a direction for this joint search for knowledge.

In an era of rampant technological and financial power, militarisation, environmental destruction with global consequences and media that drive conflicts and seek to create us and them feelings, a joint search for solutions is needed. A collaboration built on insights into the driving forces of different countries, companies and others with popular participation and joint action as democratic pathfinders. It is needed to contribute to the development of industry, agriculture and forestry in all countries, to protect nature and health, and to safeguard the human rights of all without double standards.

We challenge civil society, people’s movements and researchers to participate in a joint effort to continue working with inspiration from the successful clearing of the Helsinki Spirit for detente and cooperation, where various joint activities can be included together with knowledge seekers for both peace on Earth and peace with the Earth. To implement this, we work to:

• A council is formed with people’s movements and researchers that produces public education materials and organizes digital and physical seminars and study circles on security, cooperation and human rights inspired by the Helsinki Spirit, starting operations in 2026-2027.
• Contribute to the realization of a joint pan-European security conference in 2028 with the participation of civil society organizations where a plan is drawn up for peace, detente and disarmament linked to renewed efforts for climate, welfare and human rights without double standards in international cooperation with similar initiatives.

Statement adopted by the Nordic Peace Alliance at the Hardanger Academy in Jondal, Norway, 2 August 2026.