The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) grew out of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) in the 1970s which resulted in the Helsinki Final Act. The name was changed in the 1990s at the Budapest Summit of Heads of State or Government.

The OSCE now has 56 participating states from Europe, Central Asia and North America. Members of the organization view security as encompassing human rights, minority representation, and economic and environmental concerns, as well as arms control and counter-terrorism.

The Heafey Law Library has some OSCE documents in print and microfiche (try an author search for: Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe). However, a great many more documents are available at the OSCE website. In addition to the searchable Documents Library, see the Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Information System (TANDIS), Legislationline and Associationline. From the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, TANDIS covers a range of issues such as anti-Semitism, gender-based discrimination, hate crimes, Holocaust remembrance, and homophobia; Legislationline has country-by-country information on citizenship, trafficking in human beings, the death penalty, judiciary independence, etc.; Associationline deals with freedom of association, particularly with respect to NGOs.