Principles governing relations
The Act’s ten guiding principles address sovereignty, the non-use of force, frontiers, territorial integrity, peaceful settlement and non-intervention. They also include human rights, self-determination, cooperation and good-faith fulfilment of obligations. The document places these principles together within a common account of relations between participating states, rather than presenting security and human rights as unrelated subjects.
Confidence and military security
The security provisions extend beyond a general declaration about borders. They include confidence-building measures and aspects of military security intended to improve the conditions for cooperation. This part of the Act belongs to the broader CSCE process through which states with different political systems developed commitments and continuing channels of contact.
Economic and humanitarian cooperation
Other sections address economic relations, science, technology and the environment. Humanitarian provisions concern contacts between people, information, culture and education. The breadth of these subjects is a defining feature of the document. European security is treated as connected to exchanges and practical relationships across several fields, not solely to military arrangements.
Political commitments and follow-up
The Act establishes arrangements for continuing the conference process. Its concluding clauses request circulation at the United Nations while explicitly stating that the text is not eligible for registration under Charter Article 102. This helps identify its character as a political Final Act rather than a treaty. The documentary form is part of understanding what the participating states undertook.
Historical scope: the opening identifies the states participating in the 1975 conference. They should not be replaced by the present-day OSCE membership list. The OSCE repository preserves the document, but its adoption belongs to the earlier CSCE period. Its principles, cooperative fields and follow-up arrangements form a connected historical instrument.
Original source: Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe; OSCE document repository.
Related reading: Europe and International Relations.