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Resolution 2000

Resolution of III World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples

Resolution of III World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples

In today’s world, the Finno-Ugric community has formed itself as a force, which can express and protect the values and ideals common to all humanity, that is:

  • Preservation of the priceless historical and cultural heritage of all peoples for future generations;
  • Harmonious combination of the development of civilisation and traditional folk spirituality;
  • Raising the young generation in the spirit of respect and love in regard to the historical heritage of their ancestors.

Since the time of the I (Syktyvkar) and the II (Budapest) World Congresses of Finno-Ugric Peoples, some significant changes have taken place and are still continuing inside the Finno-Ugric world itself, namely:

  1. the Finno-Ugric world has became a real factor, consolidating our peoples and playing an even more constructive role in the sphere of relations between the states;
  2. the development of all-round relations has led to the rapprochement of Finno-Ugric peoples. Most clearly it manifests itself in the spiritual sphere: in culture, education, and science; there is deeper understanding of all the things in common that bring our peoples closer together;
  3. our peoples have acquired the experience of solving vitally important issues of self-determination in the process of dialogue with and participation of all the stakeholders – both governmental bodies and non-governmental organisations involved in the process;
  4. special attention has been paid to the processes of reviving and developing cultures and languages, and to national self-consciousness of Finno-Ugric peoples; systems of national education are being expanded; mass-media is being developed; the number of Finno-Ugric languages, which are protected by law, is increasing;
  5. the Consultative Committee of Finno-Ugric Peoples has become the co-ordinating centre of the Finno-Ugric community and has managed to create a broad network of relations with different governmental and non-governmental organisations that makes it possible, in particular, to protect the rights of indigenous people and linguistic minorities through assistance rendered by international structures.

Current tendencies at the global and European levels are generally positive, enabling ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples to implement their rights. Noteworthy in this context are certain regional legal instruments: the Framework Convention on the protection of ethnic minorities’ rights (1992); the Chart of the Council of Europe on regional languages and languages of ethnic minorities (Strasbourg, 1992); Convention No. 169 of the International Labour Organisation. The Congress appeals to all the States where Finno-Ugric people live traditionally to ratify those documents.
At the same time, during recent years, in some regions of traditional residence of Finno-Ugric peoples, one can observe the deterioration of their social and economic conditions, which, in its turn, has a negative impact on the general situation, reproductive factors and self-development of these peoples. The problems of demographic development are especially serious. Due to certain unfavourable processes (assimilation, negative natural increase of population, etc.), the absolute number of some peoples is decreasing.
The matters concerning protection and development of Finno-Ugric languages must be given more support and encouragement. People who forget their language, eventually, are assimilated by and absorbed into the dominating cultural milieu. Today, there are few Finno-Ugric diasporas which are able to develop or, moreover, modernise their culture just in their own communities, being separated from the ethnic cores of their ancestral homelands.

With the objective of further all-round development of related peoples, the III World Congress of Finno-Ugric peoples hereby resolves:

Helsinki, December 13, 2000