Paris Charter - Definition and Overview

The Charter of Paris for a New Europe was adopted by a summit meeting of most European governments in addition to those of Canada, the United States and the Asian countries of the former Soviet Union, in Paris on 21 November 1990. The charter was established on the foundation of the Helsinki Accords, and was further amended in the 1999 Charter for European Security. Together they form the agreed basis for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

The Charter was one of many attempts to seize the opportunity of the Fall of Communism by actively inviting the former Eastern bloc-countries into the ideological framework of the Free world. It has been compared to the Conference of Versailles of 1919 or the Congress of Vienna of 1815 in its grandiose ambition to reshape Europe. In effect, the Paris Summit was the peace conference of the Cold War: Perestroika had ultimately put an end to the ideological and political division of the Iron Curtain. Pluralist democracy and market economy were together with International law and multilateralism seen as the victors, and as the common values and principles of national and international conduct that now ruled from Vancouver to Vladivostok.

The Charter established an Office for Democratic Institutions and Humand Rights in Warsaw, a Conflict Prevention Centre in Vienna, and a secretariat. Later, in 1992, also a Secretary General was appointed. It was agreed that the Foreign Ministers are to convene regularly for political consultations.

External link

• http://www.osce.org/docs/english/1990-1999/summits/paris90e.htm