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Military reform

The OSCE's activities in the field of military reform are twofold. The Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC) provides a framework for dialogue between the participating States, leading to politically binding commitments on military conduct and democratization of the armed forces.

Practical activities to assist States in reforming their legislation; downsizing and/or conversion of their armies; training personnel on the rights of the servicemen and humanitarian law; and other areas related to military reform are conducted by the OSCE field operations, such as the Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the Conflict Prevention Centre (CPC). The guidelines for all these activities are provided by the OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security.

The implementation of these commitments is based on the political goodwill of OSCE participating States. The States encourage full implementation by holding periodic conferences in Vienna (such as Annual Implementation Assessment Meetings and Conferences on Military Doctrines) to review progress.

OSCE Institutions active in military reform:

Features

OSCE helps build regional ties between military academies

Officers-in-training from the Serbian Military Academy share experiences with their hosts during a study visit to the Czech University of Defence in Brno, December 2009. (OSCE/Milan Sekuloski)

A group of Serbian officers-in-training from the Serbian Military Academy visited the Czech University of Defence in Brno, as part of the OSCE Mission to Serbia's efforts to support higher military education reform.
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Citizens in uniform: protecting human rights in the armed forces

From left to right: ODIHR Director Christian Strohal, German Defence Ministry advisor Prof. Reiner Pommerin, Lt. Gen. Johann-Georg Dora and Amb. Theodor Winkler at a conference on implementing human rights in the armed forces, Berlin, 7-8 September 2006. (OSCE)

A recently launched programme by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights is encouraging states to integrate respect for the human rights of soldiers into the way their military institutions operate.
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Speaking with one voice on defence issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Two of the members of the BiH Presidency, Ivo Miro Jovic (second l) and Sulejman Tihic (l), review soldiers in Sarajevo, 1 June 2005. Under the new Law on Defence, the entity-level armies and defence ministries are to be dissolved. (OSCE)

The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina has welcomed the transfer of responsibility for the armed forces from the country's two entities to the state level - but more "hard work" is still needed.
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OSCE activities in military reform span from encouraging democratic control over armed forces to verifying the destruction of weapons. (Finnish Defence Forces)

OSCE activities in military reform span from encouraging democratic control over armed forces to verifying the destruction of weapons. (Finnish Defence Forces)