2. To appoint an Ombudsman to investigate human rights violations, issue findings, and bring
proceedings before a newly created Human Rights Chamber. OSCE would also play an important
role in monitoring human rights; and
3. To begin negotiations within seven days after final signature on 14 December in Paris, under OSCE
auspices to agree on a set of confidence-building measures (restrictions on military deployments and
exercises, notification of military activities, exchange of data) to be applied within 45 days. OSCE
would also assist the parties with arms control negotiations and the implementation and verification
of resulting agreements that would set numerical limits within 180 days on holding of tanks,
armoured combat vehicles, combat aircraft and attack helicopters, and a ban on the import of any
weapons for 90 days and on any heavy weapons for 180 days.
In Budapest the OSCE Foreign Ministers accepted this challenge. But the military and civilian sides
will have to work very closely together for several reasons. For example, NATO will be separating the
forces that OSCE has been called upon to subject to arms control, whereas the NATO High Level Task
Force on Conventional Arms Control and the Verification and Implementation Co-ordination Section of
the NATO International Secretariat can provide essential and expert advice on the required speedy
implementation of the arms control provisions of the Dayton agreement. After all, Alliance arms control
proposals have long provided the core for OSCE agreements.
NATO forces may also become engaged in one way or the other, regardless of their mission statement,
with the other two OSCE tasks given the interface between the military and civilian dimensions--for
example, when a security risk to OSCE personnel and facilities goes beyond a non-IFOR police
function, or requests for facilitating freedom of movement of OSCE personnel.
In future, the same interactive nature may apply to a permanent cease-fire and political settlement in
Nagorno-Karabakh and elsewhere in the OSCE region. What better demonstration of mutuallyreinforcing institutions and of impartial peacekeeping on the territory of the former Soviet Union than a
true partnership between OSCE and NATO, complementing the vital NATO partnership with Russia
and Ukraine?
Another dimension concerns the Partnership for Peace. Because NATO has decided to support OSCE
peacekeeping on a case-by-case basis and by consensus of the Allies, there is clearly a link between the
PFP peacekeeping training and potential missions NATO and its Partners might decide to perform.
In addition, both OSCE and NATO together with Partners could combine efforts in fostering
democracy. The need to share experience in the area of civil-military relations and democratic control
of the armed forces is an obvious joint venture by way of organising and following-up events. A model
on the parliamentary side is the close working relationship between the North Atlantic Assembly and
the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. The NATO Foreign Ministers declared at their December meeting:
The OSCE will be a valuable partner of the Alliance in the implementation of a peace settlement in
Bosnia....The implementation of the peace settlement will be one promising test ground for cooperation in many areas between our two organisations....[We] will continue our efforts to improve
the pattern of contacts between NATO and the OSCE, including through senior representation at
Ministerial Meetings and, on a more routine basis, through the international Staff.
Thought will need to be devoted to the most practical ways of doing so. For example, should the OSCE
Partner for NATO be the OSCE Secretary General or the Chairman-in-Office (a Foreign Minister who
rotates every year)? If the latter, would formal links be necessary if. the Chairman was the Foreign
Minister of a NATO nation? At the working level, should a "hot-line" be established between the
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OSCE ODIHR Bulletin Vol. 4 No. 3