About permanent delegation
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE PA) was established by the Charter of Paris for a New Europe at the Paris Summit in 1990. It was organized under the Final Declaration of the Madrid Conference of high-level parliamentary leaders of OSCE participating states in 1991. The first formal session of the Assembly was held in Budapest in 1992, when it was decided that the seat of the Assembly's International Secretariat will be in Copenhagen. The main task of the 323 members of the Assembly is to enable interparliamentary dialogue of all OSCE participating states. The OSCE itself was formed in 1973 under the name Conference for European Security and Co-operation (CSCE), having evolved since to become the largest regional security organization of 57 participating states from 5 continents. In 1994 the organization was renamed OSCE.
Some of the basic activities of the Parliamentary Assembly include strengthening and consolidation of democratic institution of OSCE participating states, development of institutional structures, human rights protection, improved cooperation among the existing institutions of the OSCE and contributing to the promotion of mechanisms for conflict prevention and resolution.
One of the more prominent activities of the OSCE PA is observation of elections, in which it has been actively involved since 1993. Since then more than 5000 OSCE parliamentarians participated in so-called short-term observation missions of approximately 150 parliamentary and presidential elections in more than 30 countries worldwide. In the framework of election observation, the OSCE PA co-operates with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament.