20126th World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples, Hungary - Set

The design of the stamp with a face value of HUF 290 is a graphic composition referring to a language family branching from a single stem. The first day cover for the stamp bears the name of the congress in each language belonging to the Finno-Ugric language family and in English. The commemorative stamp was designed by the Kossuth Prize winning graphic artist István Orosz, and made in the state printing company Állami Nyomda. The institution of the World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples came into being after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when it seemed that an opportunity arose for the cultural renascence and development of independent relations for the native peoples with small populations living there. According to the fundamental Declaration adopted at the first congress, the World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples is “the forum of Finno-Ugric and Samo-yed peoples independent of government and political parties, which acts on the basis of the Declaration on the cooperation of the Finno-Ugric peoples of the world” (Syktyvkar, 1992). The executive body of the congress is the Consultative Committee, which sits every six months. Its remit includes coordinating cooperation and representing the rights of Finno-Ugric peoples in international organizations, and thus in the relevant working group of the UN Commission on Human Rights. All the peoples participating were given one or two representatives on the Committee and each people has one vote. Hungary first hosted the world congress in 1996. The plenary session then was held in the House of Parliament, where delegates were welcomed by the head of state. It was there that the practice of continuing work in sections after the plenary session evolved. The Finno-Ugric languages comprise the larger group in the Uralic language family. There are 15 living and 2 dead Finno-Ugric languages. (If separate dialects are also considered, the total number of languages is 30). These languages show related features as regards structure and basic vocabulary. Finno-Ugric languages are spoken by approximately 24 million people in the Carpathian Basin, and spread across an enormous area of Northern Europe, Eastern Europe and Western Siberia. The Finno-Ugric languages are also distantly related to the Samoyed languages spoken in Siberia. The two language groups form the Uralic language family. Hungarian belongs to the Ugric group of languages within Finno-Ugric languages. This group includes the Ob-Ugric languages of the Mansi (Vogul) and Khanty (Ostyak) living to the east of the Urals.