World Congress of Rusyns


World Congress of Rusyns is the central event of the international Rusyn community. Its executive committee is called the World Council of Rusyns and currently has ten members: nine representing various countries in which most Rusyns live, and one ex officio voting member, the current chairperson of the World Forum of Rusyn Youth. The longtime chairman of the Congress was historian Paul Robert Magocsi, who now holds the title of Honorary President.International activities of WCR are focused on two main issues:
  • Further development and improvement of Rusyn minority rights in various countries that had already recognized Rusyns as a distinctive national minority.
  • Continuation of efforts and initiatives aimed to achieve such recognition for other Rusyn communities, particularly those in Ukraine and some other countries.
Various congressional committees were also formed, dealing specifically with questions related to minority rights and cultural issues. WCR bodies were not consulted by a group of linguists who decided to support a proposal that was addressed to the International Organization for Standardization, requesting suppression of the ISO 639-3 code for Rusyn language and its division into two distinctive and separate languages. In January 2020, the ISO authorities rejected the request.
In July 2019, various questions related to Rusyn language were discussed at the 15th plenary meeting of WCR that was held in Kamienka, [Stará Ľubovňa District|Kamienka], focusing mainly on its former and current status in Ukraine. In the final conclusions, the aforementioned process was not addressed.
In November 2020, Đura Papuga, former WCR president from 2009 until 2015, decided to support the previously mentioned group of linguists, who formulated a new proposal, also addressed to the ISO, requesting recognition for one of Rusyn linguistic varieties as a new and separate language, under the proposed name: Ruthenian language. The request is still under deliberation.
The latest biannual meeting of WCR was held between the 13 and 15 June 2025 in Bucharest, Romania.

Meetings