Universal Esperanto Association facts for kids
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Universala Esperanto-Asocio
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Logo of UEA
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Individual members by country
1-100 members 101-200 members 201-300 members 301-400 members |
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| Abbreviation | UEA |
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| Formation | 1908 |
| Founder | Hector Hodler |
| Purpose | promote the use of Esperanto |
| Headquarters | Central Office |
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Region
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World |
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Official language
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Esperanto |
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President
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Duncan Charters |
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Vice-President
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Fernando Maia |
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General Director
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Martin Schäffer |
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Key people
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Ivo Lapenna |
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Main organ
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Central Committee |
| Affiliations | UN, UNESCO |
The Universal Esperanto Association (Esperanto: Universala Esperanto-Asocio, UEA), also known as the World Esperanto Association, is the biggest international group for people who speak Esperanto. It has thousands of members in many countries and works closely with the United Nations. Besides individual members, about 70 national Esperanto groups are also part of UEA. Its current president is Duncan Charters. The magazine Esperanto is the main way UEA shares news with its members.
UEA was started in 1908 by Swiss journalist Hector Hodler and others. Its main office is in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The group also has an office at the United Nations building in New York City.
How UEA Works
The Universal Esperanto Association has two types of members:
- Individual members join directly. They pay a fee to the main office or a local representative. These members get the UEA Yearbook and use UEA services.
- Association members (asociaj membroj) are part of groups that have joined UEA. These groups can be national or special interest organizations. For these members, it's more of a symbolic connection.
The highest decision-making group in UEA is called the Komitato. Its members (komitatanoj) are chosen in three ways:
- National organizations send at least one member to the Komitato. Larger organizations can send more.
- Individual members can choose one Komitato member for every 1,000 individual members.
- The members chosen by the first two methods can then pick more Komitato members.
The Komitato chooses a smaller group called the Estraro. The Estraro then appoints a general director and sometimes another director. The general director and their team work at the UEA main office in Rotterdam.
An individual member can become a delegito (delegate). This person acts as a local contact for Esperanto and UEA members in their town. A ĉefdelegito (chief delegate) is appointed by UEA to collect membership fees in a specific country.
Youth Section
TEJO, the World Esperanto Youth Organization, is the youth part of UEA. Each year, TEJO organizes an International Youth Congress of Esperanto (Internacia Junulara Kongreso) in a different place. This event lasts a week and includes concerts, talks, and trips. Hundreds of young people from all over the world attend.
TEJO also has its own Komitato and connected national and special interest groups, just like UEA. A TEJO volunteer works at the main office in Rotterdam.
National Organizations
The first national Esperanto group was started in France in 1898. Soon after, many other national groups formed in different countries. Since 1933-1934, these national groups send representatives to the UEA Komitato, making UEA a federation of these groups.
When UEA first accepted national organizations, it asked them to:
- Have at least 100 members.
- Be well-organized.
- Be neutral, meaning they should not have political or religious goals and be open to everyone.
This neutrality rule sometimes caused problems. For example, the German group faced issues when the country's government changed. Later, the Cuban group was not accepted because its rules supported a political party. In 1980, UEA changed its rules. Now, a national organization doesn't have to be neutral itself, but it must respect UEA's neutrality.
Specialist Organizations
Specialist organizations are groups for people who share a specific interest and speak Esperanto. They are like national organizations but focus on a topic instead of a country.
- Neutral organizations can join UEA in the same way as national organizations. Examples include Esperanto doctors and Esperanto teachers.
- Other organizations work with UEA but don't send representatives to the Komitato. They might be mentioned in the Yearbook or have a room at the World Congress. Some don't join because of money or because they are not neutral. Examples are Esperanto vegetarians or Esperanto Catholics.
TEJO, the youth section, has two specialist groups: one for cyclists and one for rock music fans.
What UEA Does
Publications
UEA publishes Esperanto, which is the most important Esperanto magazine. It started in 1905. UEA founder Hector Hodler took it over in 1907 and made it the official UEA magazine in 1908. Since the 1950s, it has a paid editor. The Yearbook (Jarlibro de UEA) is another old publication from the association.
UEA also publishes books and has the world's largest mail-order Esperanto bookstore. It offers over 6,000 books, CDs, and other items. The association also has an information center and an important Esperanto library called the Hector Hodler Library. UEA has a network of local representatives around the world, called the Delegita Reto. These people can provide information about their area or job.
Conventions
The yearly World Esperanto Congress (Universala Kongreso de Esperanto) is organized by UEA. It brings together 1,500 to 3,000 people in a different city each year. The first congress was in 1905. Since 1933-1934, UEA has been in charge of it.
Twice a year, in spring and autumn, the UEA main office in Rotterdam holds an Open Day for visitors.
Working with Other International Groups
UEA works with many important international organizations. Besides the UN and UNESCO, it also has connections with UNICEF and the Council of Europe. It works with the Organization of American States and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). UEA also shares information with the European Union and other international groups. It is a member of the European Language Council, which helps promote languages and cultures.
In May 2011, UEA became an Associate Member of the International Information Centre for Terminology (Infoterm).
Grabowski Prize
The Grabowski Prize is an award given to young writers who create works in Esperanto. It is managed by the Antoni Grabowski Foundation, which is part of UEA. The prize is named after Antoni Grabowski, who is known as "the father of Esperanto poetry." The top three winners receive money prizes.
Past Winners
Ulrich Becker, who publishes books in and about Esperanto, won the Grabowski Prize (Premio Grabowski) in 2005. He was recognized for his work in publishing Esperanto literature. He also publishes Beletra Almanako, a magazine of Esperanto literature.
History of UEA
Early Years of Esperanto (1888–1914)
The modern UEA grew from many attempts to organize the Esperanto movement. The first Esperanto clubs were local, starting in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1888. From 1898, national Esperanto groups began to form in different countries.
The creator of Esperanto, L. L. Zamenhof, wanted an international group to exist. The first world congress in 1905 led to a group that organized future congresses.
Esperanto speakers agreed that the movement needed to do two main international tasks: share information and promote Esperanto in new places. They also needed to organize world congresses. However, they disagreed on which group should be in charge and how to manage money.
In 1906, a French general named Hyppolyte Sebert created the Esperantista Centra Oficejo (Central Office of the Esperantists) in Paris. It collected information about the movement. In 1907, Zamenhof created a Lingva Komitato (Language Committee) to guide the development of the Esperanto language.
In 1908, Hector Hodler and other young Esperanto speakers started the Universala Esperanto-Asocio (UEA) in Geneva. Hodler believed that an international cause like Esperanto needed one strong international group. UEA members were encouraged to form groups at national and local levels.
Many existing national Esperanto groups saw UEA as a rival. They worried that UEA would divide the movement. They also felt that promoting Esperanto and teaching it was their job, and they didn't want UEA to take new Esperanto speakers they had helped create.
So, national groups tried to build their own international organization. But these efforts stopped in 1914 when World War I began, pausing many Esperanto activities.
UEA's First Steps
The first UEA was only for individual members. Members in a town would meet and choose a delegito (delegate). The delegate collected fees and sent them to the Geneva office. They also represented their members internationally. All the delegates together held votes and chose the Komitato, the main group of the association.
The Komitato was a board with a president and vice president. Hector Hodler was the director from 1908 to 1920. He appointed delegates in towns with fewer members.
Hodler also owned and published the magazine Esperanto. From the start, UEA published a Yearbook (Jarlibro) with information about the association and delegate addresses.
Hodler wanted UEA to be a large organization with tens of thousands of members. He also tried to include specialist groups within UEA. For example, the Universala Medicina Esperanto-Asocio (Esperanto Medical Association) was founded in 1908. He also thought about working with businesses, like hotels, that would offer discounts to UEA members.
Changes Between the World Wars (1920–1933)
After World War I, the Esperanto movement met again in 1920. This led to the "Helsinki system" in 1922, which tried to organize the movement. This system involved:
- UEA, the international members' group.
- The Konstanta Komitato de la Naciaj Societoj (Ko-Ro), a new group for national associations.
- The Internacia Centra Komitato de la Esperanto-Movado (ICK), a new group chosen by UEA and Ko-Ro to manage common tasks and money.
- The congress committee and the language committee.
This system only lasted a few years. Leaders saw that many groups were discussing the same things at world congresses. By 1929, they had joint meetings. Many ideas came up to change the organization.
The Helsinki system ended in 1932 when UEA and some national groups stopped paying their contributions. The largest national groups from Britain, Germany, and France tried to start a new organization. However, in early 1933, UEA and the national groups agreed to a full reform of the movement.
The 'New UEA' and the Split of 1936
In 1933, at the Cologne congress, UEA became the main organization for the international Esperanto movement. In 1934, UEA members accepted new rules. This "new UEA" became a federation of national associations, but it also kept individual members.
The Komitato remained the highest group. It included representatives from national organizations and members chosen by delegates. A third group of representatives was chosen by the first two groups, allowing experts to join.
Since 1933-1934, UEA has been in charge of the yearly World Congress of Esperanto.
In 1936, a difficult financial situation led the UEA board to decide to move its headquarters from Geneva to London. However, a secret campaign made it hard to legally move the office. After months of talks and a vote, most board members and Komitato members left UEA. They formed a new group called the Internacia Esperanto-Ligo (IEL) in September 1936. Almost all national organizations and individual members followed them. The old leaders took power again in the deserted UEA office in Geneva.
UEA After World War II
The international Esperanto movement survived World War II with the IEL headquarters near London. After the war, the two groups (IEL and the Genevan UEA) merged.
Ivo Lapenna, a law professor from Croatia living in London, greatly changed the association in the 1950s. The office moved from Heronsgate to Rotterdam. The board got a "general secretary," and the Esperanto magazine editor became a paid position. After 1956, the association received new rules again in 1980.
After the war, the number of staff grew. Before the war, there was usually only a director and one or two assistants. After the war, UEA sometimes had ten or more employees.
Lapenna started a "prestige policy," spending money to make Esperanto more recognized. This included getting UNESCO to support Esperanto, which Lapenna achieved in 1954. This made him famous as the "hero of Montevideo." After more than 30 years on the UEA board, Lapenna left in 1974 and started a different organization.
During the Cold War, UEA faced challenges because it had members and groups in communist countries. The collapse of the Soviet Union and its allied states between 1989 and 1991 changed the international situation, making it easier for UEA to work across different political systems.
See also
In Spanish: Asociación Universal de Esperanto para niños
- Category:Presidents of the Universal Esperanto Association
- World Esperanto Youth Organization (TEJO)
- Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda, a global Esperanto organization with a focus on social issues
- World Congress of Esperanto
- Terminologia Esperanto-Centro
Literature
- Forster, Peter Glover: The Esperanto Movement, Diss. Hull 1977, The Hague et al. 1982 (Hull 1977)
- Lins, Ulrich: Utila Estas Aliĝo. Tra la unua jarcento de UEA, Universala Esperanto-Asocio. Rotterdam 2008
- Sikosek, Marcus: Die neutrale Sprache. Eine politische Geschichte des Esperanto-Weltbundas. Diss. Utrecht 2006. Skonpres, Bydgoszcz 2006
