Bodies 

Historical context

In the beginning of the 1970s, the two blocs led by the U.S. and the USSR agreed on a European Security Conference as a result of military détente between the two superpowers. The conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland, and Helsinki, Finland, from 1973 to 1975 and presented a new approach in developing a broader confidence.

The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was concluded after two years of negotiations in 1975 when the heads of states and governments of 35 European states and the U.S. and Canada signed the Helsinki Final Act. The provisions of the Helsinki Final Act were viewed as essential for détente in Europe.

Topics of discussion at the Helsinki Conference were presented within the three baskets: Basket I on security; Basket II on economic, scientific, technological, and environmental cooperation; Basket III on human and civil rights, and cultural and information exchange.

The first CSCE follow-up meeting was held in Belgrade from 4 October 1977 to 8 March 1978, and was continued by other follow-up conferences in the 1980s. The main topics discussed at the Belgrade follow-up meeting were especially human and minority rights issues. Compared to the overall constructiveness of the first CSCE in Helsinki, its follow-up meetings, especially the one in Belgrade, were accompanied with clashes between Eastern and Western states. The CSCE became a forum of public debate between the protagonists of the Cold War, the US and the USSR.

Purpose and description

The conference "From Helsinki to Belgrade: The First CSCE Follow-up Meeting in Belgrade 1977/78", initiated by Zikic Foundation Bonn/Belgrade, in cooperation with OSCE Mission to Serbia, took place in Belgrade from 8 to 10 March 2008. The organization of the conference was implemented by Belgrade NGO Center.

The conference aimed at defining purpose and results of the Belgrade CSCE follow-up meeting. In that context, it also served to examine the relevance and development of the CSCE process as a whole and the promotion of its values.

The conference addressed the topics that had been discussed at the very first CSCE Follow-up Meeting (October 1977 – March 1978) – cultural and information exchange, issues of human, civil and minority rights, humanitarian progress in general and the successful transformation of the CSCE into the OSCE.