The CSCE, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe held in Helsinki in July-August 1975, was a successful dialogue between states. At the celebratory conference organised by the Finnish Foreign Ministry at Finlandia Hall in Helsinki on July 31, 2025, the dialogue with civil society and citizen movements would be the central theme.
By Mikael Böök
Under my name on the name tag handed out at the entrance was the name of a peace organization (The Peace Union of Finland).
Today, the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has carried on the principles of the CSCE with varying degrees of success, certainly needs help from civil society and citizens’ movements. The organization is in a state of deep confusion and disintegration.
But I would argue that the dialogue with civil society and citizen movements did not happen.
There was a wall between official Finland and international civil society. However, there were some interesting cracks in that wall.
Among the participants were many people from so-called GONGOs, non-governmental organizations run or sponsored by states. Several people from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are neither run nor sponsored by states were also given access, but unfortunately, the latter were not allowed to speak.
A few exceptions should be noted, however.
One of them was Heidi Meinzolt from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). She spoke about the nuclear threat and was thus perhaps the only speaker during the entire conference to break a taboo that is absurd if the dialogue is to be about common security. Meinzolt’s speech was part of one of the hand-picked side events between the official panel discussions.
Human rights defender Olga Karatch was present at another side event (on the persecution of human rights defenders in Belarus). Accused and convicted of “extremism” in Belarus, Karatch has had to flee with her family to Lithuania, where she runs the organization “Our House,” which helps conscientious objectors in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine and opposes the ongoing arms race in the East and West including, of course, the Russian deployment of nukes in Belarus. Karatch does not fit into the usual state narratives. She did not have a slot in the official program, but she was nevertheless present at Finlandia Hall and at the citizen events outside.
One panel discussion focused on how states and civil society can jointly address threats to peace, human rights, and democracy. Panelist Kevin Casas-Zamora from the organization International IDEA (where D stands for democracy) highlighted the immense power of large American tech companies and suggested that they should be expropriated by the state. He also noted that the growing gap between the richest and the poorest threatens democracy and that action should have been taken years ago to tackle tax havens. Another breath of fresh air from the other side of the wall!
What can we learn from the past 50 years, and what are our ambitions for the next 50 years? These questions were posed in another official panel discussion. A young environmental and human rights activist, Helena Gualinga from Ecuador/Amazonas, who attended school in Finland, was allowed to speak. “Over the past two years, we have witnessed genocide—something that has not been discussed enough here today,” she said. “We all support Ukraine and can speak freely about it, but we are so afraid to mention Israel…” – here the audience applauded, but journalist Stephen Sackur, the panel’s moderator, interrupted her and reminded her that the OSCE states are not unanimous in calling the events in Gaza genocide. Gualinga replied: “It is precisely because we are unable to express ourselves clearly about these most horrific events that we are failing. What democratic values do we have then?” With this response, Gualinga drew further applause and seemed for a moment to cause the moderator to lose his composure.
Gualinga revealed the simple truth that today’s OSCE operates with double standards. Thus, the dialogue with civil society ends precisely where it could and should begin.
Shortly before Gualinga’s speech, Peter Sackur had asked the panel participants to “speak the truth” and called Russia “an actual enemy” that will need to be excluded from the OSCE if the organization wants to avoid becoming a “useless club for fishermen.” He might as well have asked what the OSCE is needed for when NATO is already taking care of European security.
On the day before and after the conference at Finlandia Hall, we, the people from NGOs not run or sponsored by states, organised our own events and conferences outside the venue on the initiative of the Nordic Peace Alliance. Among other things, we cycled to the 37 embassies of the OSCE countries in Helsinki to deliver our People’s Declaration” calling for “The spirit of the Helsinki Accords 1975” to be carried forward. We organized public discussions on the future of the OSCE and on philosopher GH von Wright’s 1983 pamphlet “The Threat of War, the Arms Race, and the Peace Movement” at the Forest House in Helsinki.
The morning after the official conference, we congratulated the OSCE with a picnic outside Finlandia Hall. Then we held an open conference in the auditorium of a big public library to conduct thought experiments in a “peace laboratory.” More about all this, including our declaration (with first signatures from some 60 organisations) , can be found on the website helsinkiplus50.org.
