The daily work in promoting Norwegian interests in the OSCE are primarily handled by the Permanent Delegation to the OSCE in Vienna and the section dealing with OSCE affairs in the Department for European Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo. There are a total of 11 persons working in the delegation. This includes five diplomats, one military adviser (colonel), one attaché, one archivist, one trainee, two secretaries and one Norwegian corporal.
For more detailed studies of the organisation and its scope of work we would suggest that you have a look at the homepage of the OSCE from where you can click your way to comprehensive information about the organisation, its institutions, its field activities and much more. The OSCE has presently field-activities in 18 different countries or territories. The activity is concentrated in countries in transition in the Balkans, Eastern-Europe and in Central-Asia.
Ambassador Eide welcomes UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the OSCE Permanent Council during the Norwegian Chairmanship in 1999.
Norwegian secondments:
There are approximately 25 Norwegian women and men seconded to various OSCE field-operations. This includes border monitors, police instructors, human rights- and legal officers, democratisation officers, education officers, field officers and senior management positions. At present there are Norwegian personell seconded to the OSCE Missions in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Tadjikistan and Kazakhstan, as well as to the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna.
In addition, Norwegians are usually seconded on short-, mid-, and long term contracts to election observation missions in the OSCE-area. OSCE Election Observation Missions are conducted by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which is one of the OSCE institutions. ODIHR’s headquarter is located in Warsaw, Poland.
OSCE mission members are usually seconded for a six months period, with the possibility to extend their contract further.
If you want more information on procedures and applications for Norwegian secondments to the OSCE, please click here.
Former Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Knut Vollebæk, visiting Chechnya as the OSCE Chairman in Office in 1999.