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This body is the successor to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, a standing conference (also known as the Helsinki conference after the city in which the original agreement was signed) which served as a multilateral forum for dialogue and cooperation between East and West from 1975 onwards. With the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, the Conference became increasingly institutionalized and in 1995 was transformed into the OSCE. The aims of this organization are to prevent local conflicts, bolster European security, and build peaceful and democratic societies. The heads of state or government of its 55 members (which include Canada and the United States) meet every other year; its Ministerial Council meets at least annually; and there is a Permanent Council responsible for routine operational tasks, composed of the members’ permanent representatives. The OSCE also has a Parliamentary Assembly, a High Commissioner on National Minorities, and an Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. It establishes ad hoc missions to serve as instruments of conflict prevention and crisis management.
The Organization\'s headquarters is in Vienna, Austria. The OSCE is a testimony to the remarkable breaking down of barriers in Europe during the 1990s. It has no executive authority over its members, but does useful work, as in Kosovo, where it had 1400 observers until the start of the NATO bombing in March 1999 forced their withdrawal. |
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