RULES
OF THE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE
OF FINNO-UGRIC PEOPLES

1. Procedures of the Consultative Committee shall be based on the principle of consensus.

A session of the Consultative Committee shall be considered held if attended by over half of its members. Organisational and technical questions are solved by vote. Decisions shall be accepted if voted for by over half of the voters. Elective persons are elected by secret ballot.

2. Members of the Consultative Committee are representatives of peoples, appointed and recalled by their national congresses or, in their absence, by public organisations representing interests of these peoples. Debatable questions thereof are solved by the Consultative Committee.

3. Executive and administrative activity at the Consultative Committee are carried out by the Secretariat formed by the Chairman and Co-ordinators representing the following countries: Estonia, Finland, Hungary and the Russian Federation. The Co-ordinators are appointed by their countries or, in the case of the Russian Federation, by the Association of Finno-Ugric Peoples of the Russian Federation, if the elected Chairman of the Consultative Committee is not from the Russian Federation.

4. The Consultative Committee:

– elects its Chairman;

– annually adopts the financial and working plans of the Consultative Committee;

– annually listens to the report by the Chairman, the financial report of the Headquarters and the auditors’ report;

– arranges drafting and realisation of development programmes for Finno-Ugric peoples;

– adopts decisions, declarations, appeals and other documents, affirmed, if necessary, in both official languages and having recommendatory character for the peoples;

– carries out other activities determined by the Congress.

5. The Chairman of the Consultative Committee:

– guides the Committee’s activity;

– represents the Committee at international and governmental bodies and non-governmental organisations;

– performs in accordance with decisions of the Congress and the Consultative Committee;

– convokes, in agreement with the Co-ordinators, the Consultative Committee’s sessions at least annually;

– provides information about the Consultative Committee’s activity;

– performs other activities as commissioned by the Congress and the Committee.

6. A session of the Consultative Committee can also be convoked under the initiative of at least half of the members of the Consultative Committee. Members of the Consultative Committee may use communication facilities to decide on urgent questions.

7. Drafts of the Consultative Committee’s decisions, as well as information required thereof, must be submitted to the Consultative Committee Headquarters at least a month prior to its next session. The Headquarters shall provide the members of the Consultative Committee with all available materials at least three weeks prior to the next session.

The Headquarters is obligated to register and dispatch the minutes of the Consultative Committee’s decisions and other documents in a month's time.

8. In the work of the Consultative Committee, observers participate whose status is defined by the Consultative Committee.

9. Representatives of governmental bodies, non-governmental and other organisations, as well as experts, may be invited by the Secretariat to participate at the sessions of the Consultative Committee.

10. The Consultative Committee elects three auditors, who shall not be members of the Consultative Committee, to represent the countries that have paid their dues.

11. Temporary working groups and expert commissions may be formed by the Consultative Committee to elaborate on various problems.

12. Working languages of the Consultative Committee shall be English and Russian.

13. The Rules of the Consultative Committee are accepted, supplemented or changed by the Consultative Committee.

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