The World Esperanto Association (, UEA), also known as the Universal Esperanto Association, is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with 5,501 individual members in 121 countries and 9,215 through national associations (in 2015) in 214 countries.List of countries with Esperanto speakers La membraro de UEA en 2015, "Esperanto" 1301, april 2016, p. 94 In addition to individual members, 70 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated with UEA. Its current president is Fernando Maia. The magazine Esperanto is the main publication to inform UEA members about everything happening in the Esperanto community.
The UEA was founded in 1908 by the Swiss journalist Hector Hodler and others and is now headquartered in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The organization has official relations with the United Nations and has an office at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
Structure and affiliated organizations
According to its 1980 statutes (Statuto de UEA), the World Esperanto Association has two kinds of members: individual members join the association directly, paying a fee to the Rotterdam headquarters or to the chief delegate in their country. These members receive UEA services. (associate members), i.e., members of organizations that joined UEA. These members are administered by their respective organizations, which can be national or specialist bodies. This kind of indirect membership is, for the individual person, more symbolic than direct membership.
The UEA's supervisory board, the Komitato, has members (komitatanoj) elected in three different ways: An organization sends at least one komitatano, plus one more for every 1,000 national members, to the Komitato. Most national organizations have only one komitatano. For every 1,000 individual members, one member can be chosen to the Komitato. Both previous groups may together elect additional komitatanoj, up to one-third of their numbers.
The Komitato serves as a sort of parliament and elects a board, the Estraro. The Estraro installs a general director and sometimes a director as well. The general director and staff work at the UEA headquarters, Oficejo de UEA, in Rotterdam.
Individual members can become a delegito, a 'delegate', who serves as a local contact person for Esperanto and UEA members in their town. A ĉefdelegito (chief delegate) is someone installed also by the UEA headquarters, but with the task to collect and remit membership fees in a given country.
Youth section TEJO, the World Esperanto Youth Organization, is the youth section of the UEA. Similar to the World Congress, TEJO organizes an International Youth Congress of Esperanto (Internacia Junulara Kongreso) each year in a different location. The IJK is a week-long event of concerts, presentations, excursions attended by hundreds of young people from all over the world.
The youth section has a Komitato and national and specialist affiliated organizations, just as the UEA itself. A TEJO volunteer works at the Rotterdam headquarters.
National organizations The first national Esperanto organization was founded in 1898 in France, originally as a potential international association. In 1903 the second one followed, in Switzerland. Within a couple of years, many of the still existing national organizations came into existence. Since 1933-1934 they have sent representatives to the UEA Komitato, making it a federation of national organizations. In Esperanto these were initially termed as Naciaj Societoj (national societies), but they have subsequently become known as Landaj Asocioj (country associations).
When UEA accepted national organizations in 1933-1934 for the first time, it required them to have at least 100 national members, be 'organized in an orderly manner', be neutral, meaning having no political or religious aims, and being open to all citizens of the country.Sikosek, Marcus: Die neutrale Sprache. Eine politische Geschichte des Esperanto-Weltbundes (“The neutral language. A political history of the World Esperanto Association.” Diss. Utrecht 2006. Skonpres, Bydgoszcz 2006, p. 126.
Especially the last prerequisite caused serious problems, e.g. to the German national association submitting to Nazi Party rule. Decades later, in 1959, the Cuban association was refused because its statutes respected the leading role of the Communist Party of Cuba. In 1980, the UEA statutes were altered to specify that while a national organization need not be neutral itself, it must respect the neutrality of UEA.
Specialist organizations Specialist organizations are similar to the national organizations. They are divided into two groups: neutral organizations, which can join UEA in the same way as national organizations. In Esperanto they are called aliĝintaj fakaj asocioj (affiliated specialist associations). Examples are the Esperanto physicians and the Esperanto teachers. other organizations in (official) collaboration with UEA. They do not send representatives to the Komitato but can have a room at the World Congress. Examples are Esperantist vegetarians, Esperantist Catholics and Esperantist communists. Some of them choose not to be affiliated because of financial reasons; others are non-neutral and therefore cannot join UEA.
The youth section TEJO has two affiliated specialist groups, the Esperantist cyclists and Esperantist rock music fans.
Activities Publications UEA publishes Esperanto, the most important Esperanto periodical. It was started in 1905 by Paul Berthelot, three years before UEA was founded. UEA founder Hector Hodler took it over in 1907 and made it the official UEA magazine in 1908. In 1920 he left the magazine to the association. Since the 1950s it has had a paid editor-in-chief. Next to Esperanto, the Yearbook (Jarlibro de UEA) which published for 108 years, was the oldest continuous publication of the association.
UEA publishes books and has the largest mail-order Esperanto bookstore in the world (with over 6,000 book titles, CDs and other items). It also maintains an information centre and an important Esperanto library, called the Hector Hodler Library. The organisation has a network of local representatives from around the world, the Delegita Reto, who are available to provide information about their geographical area or professional field.
Conventions The yearly World Esperanto Congress (Universala Kongreso de Esperanto), which attracts 1,500–3,000 people to a different city each year, is held under the direction of UEA. The first congress took place in 1905, and since 1933–1934 the UEA has had responsibility for the annual event. Since 2009, World Congresses have been held in Białystok, Poland, the hometown of L. L. Zamenhof, the creator and guiding spirit of Esperanto, as well as in Havana, Copenhagen, Hanoi, Reykjavík, Buenos Aires, Lille, Nitra, Seoul, Lisbon, Lahti, Montreal and Turin. In 2020 and 2021 the Congresses were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Congresses are scheduled for Arusha, Tanzania in 2024 and Brno, Czech Republic in 2025.
Twice a year, in spring and autumn, UEA headquarters in Rotterdam holds an Open Day.
International organizations In addition to the UN and UNESCO, UEA also has consultative relations with UNICEF and the Council of Europe, and a general working relationship with the Organization of American States. It works in an official capacity with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as an A-liaison to ISO/TC37. UEA is active in public information in the European Union and, as necessary, at other interstate and international organizations and conferences. The organisation is a member of the European Language Council, a common forum of universities and language associations for the awareness of languages and cultures inside and outside the European Union.
In May 2011, UEA officially became an Associate Member of the International Information Centre for Terminology (Infoterm).
Grabowski Prize
The Grabowski Prize is a prize awarded to young authors writing in Esperanto by the Antoni Grabowski Foundation, part of the World Esperanto Association (UEA). It is named after Antoni Grabowski, who has been called "the father of Esperanto poetry". The awards for the first three winners are $700, $300 and $150 respectively.Annual Report 2008, Esperantic Studies Foundation
Past recipients Ulrich Becker, a publisher of literature in and about Esperanto and of interlinguistic literature in general, was awarded the Grabowski Prize (Premio Grabowski) in 2005 for his achievements in publishing in Esperanto. Among other works, he is the publisher of the thrice-yearly periodical of Esperanto belles-lettres, Beletra Almanako.
History The founding years of the Esperanto movement, 1888–1914 The modern UEA is the result of a decades-long process of several attempts to give the Esperanto movement a sound foundation. The first Esperanto associations were local clubs, of which the one in Nuremberg, Germany, is considered the first (1888). From 1898, national Esperanto associations were found in several countries, with the French one being the first. In 1903 followed the Swiss association; then in 1904 the British, in 1906 the German and Swedish, etc.
The founder of Esperanto, L. L. Zamenhof, wished for an international association to come into existence, but the first world congress of 1905 produced only a general manifesto about the essence and neutrality of the movement. The organizing team passed the torch to organizers of a next congress the year after, which eventually created a Konstanta Kongresa Komitato (Permanent Congress Committee). It consisted of two members representing the previous congress, two for the current one, and two for the next following congress.
Esperantists agreed that the whole movement must support two common international tasks: international documentation, propaganda in countries without movements of their own, lobbying at international organizations, organizing the world congresses, etc. Esperantists did disagree on which or what organization should be responsible for these tasks, how it should collect the money and how it should decide on spending the money.
In 1906, the French Gen. Hyppolyte Sebert created his Esperantista Centra Oficejo (Central Office of the Esperantists) in Paris. It collected information on the movement and published an Oficiala Gazeto. In spite of this 'official' name, the office was a purely private enterprise of Sebert, but he tried to engender support from the various national associations.
One year later, at the Geneva world congress, Zamenhof created a Lingva Komitato (Language Committee), the basis of the later Akademio de Esperanto. It consisted of some eminent speakers from several countries and was intended to safeguard the evolution of Esperanto; members were elected for a nine-year term.
In 1908, a group of young Esperanto speakers founded an international association based on individual, direct membership: Universala Esperanto-Asocio, based in Geneva. According to Hector Hodler and his followers, an international cause such as Esperanto must be supported by a unitary, truly international association, and UEA members should found separate organizations on national and local levels.