The World Esperanto Association (Esperanto: Universala Esperanto-Asocio, 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. 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. asociaj membroj (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.
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.
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