The OSCE process is essentially a political process that does not create legally binding norms and principles. Unlike many other human-rights documents, OSCE human dimension commitments are politically, rather than legally, binding. This is an important distinction, since it limits the legal enforceability of OSCE standards.  

In other words, OSCE commitments cannot be enforced in a court of law. However, this should not be mistaken as indicating that the commitments lack binding force.

The distinction is between legal and political and not between binding and non-binding.  This means that the OSCE commitments are more than a simple declaration of will or good intention; they are a political promise to comply with these standards.

While deliberations on international legal documents usually take considerable time until agreement on a final text is reached, and the final documents are subject to ratification and reservations, this does not apply to OSCE documents. Their political nature leads to the unique situation that once consensus among the states has been achieved, decisions enter into force immediately and, in principle, are binding upon all OSCE states (the so-called universality principle).

This allows the OSCE to react quickly to new needs. For example, when human-rights violations with regard to minorities increased at the beginning of the 1990s, it was the OSCE that reacted first and drafted a comprehensive set of standards in the field of minority protection. Later these political standards served as basis for the legally binding Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities.