Universal Postal Union
Bern, Switzerland
All Member States of the United Nations and the Vatican City State
Universal Postal language French Other Working language English
Arabic Chinese Russian Spanish Portuguese
October 9, 1874
Until 2003: gold franc Special Drawing Right
The Universal Postal Union ( UPU short, english Universal Postal Union, French Union postale universelle, UPU short ) was founded in 1874 and until today regulates international cooperation between the postal authorities and the framework of cross- border mail. The headquarters of the Universal Postal Union since its foundation in Bern, Switzerland. He currently has 191 member states. Main legal basis of the association are the Articles of Association ( Constitution ) of 10 July 1964 supplemented by the General Rules of Procedure ( general regulations ), and the Universal Postal Convention ( Convention postale universelle ).
History
On October 9, 1874 General Postal Union was founded by 22 countries in the town hall to the exterior state of Bern ( Switzerland ) on a proposal of the German General Postmaster Heinrich von Stephan. This is one of the oldest international organizations. The UPU Convention has been ratified by 20 founding countries and entered into force on 1 July 1875.
These were: Egypt, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Austria - Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. As of January 1 in 1876 and in France in July 1879 Japan joined the Universal Postal Union.
The Postal Union regulates his post congresses, international cooperation of national postal administrations. At the second congress, held in 1878, the General Postal Union to the Universal Postal Union, the same year caused the insured letter agreement and the postal order agreement. 1881 enters the Parcel Treaty is in force. At the World Postal Congress in 1885 following additional agreements to the Universal Postal Union, insured letter agreement, Parcel Treaty and the postal order agreement. The post contract agreement and an agreement on passport books came into force in 1886.
At the World Postal Congress in Vienna in 1891 all existing contracts are renewed. The amendments took effect on 1 July 1892 in force, the newly added Mail newspaper Agreement on 1 January 1893., The improvements to the Congress in Washington occurred on 1 January 1899 in force.
On July 4, 1947, the Universal Postal Union, a specialized agency of the United Nations. It is equipped with 192 Member States, the international forum for cooperation between postal authorities and companies.
The headquarters of the Organization is Bern, where the International Bureau (the administration ) is the Universal Postal Union. From here, every four years the World Postal Congress (until 2004 the interval was consistently five years ) organized. Director General of the International Bureau of the UPU is since January 1, 2013 Bishar Hussein from Kenya.
On the importance of the city of Berne for the worldwide postal system remembers the UPU monument.
Purpose of the Association
The Universal Postal Convention of 1874 regulates international cooperation between the postal authorities and the framework of cross- border mail. To date, the main task of the UPU is to ensure a global, timely delivery of letters and parcels across national and linguistic boundaries. The need for a coordinating body such as the Universal Postal Union is clear, given the numbers that describe the worldwide postal system (as of 2003):
- 6 million postal employees
- 700,000 post offices
- 430 billion letters (of which 6 billion cross-border)
- 4.4 billion packages (of which 82 million cross-border)
Numerous agreements ( arrangements ) for the Universal Postal Union adopted at the UPU congresses. At the Congress in Beijing in 1999, the Postal Payment Services Agreement was adopted, for example, summarizing giro Convention, the Convention and the postal order postal delivery agreements.
Official language of the UPU is French; Since 1994, English is the second working language of the International Bureau.
Practical implications for the individual postal customers had the UPU especially in case of loss of shipments. So, for example, the amount of compensation for a lost registered mail addressed first by the " gold francs " ( for a registered mail, there were 75 gold francs ), and later to the Special Drawing Right of the International Monetary Fund, which is always a conversion took place in the currency of the country of the sender.
The UPU also publishes the International Reply Coupon ( Coupon - réponse international). This coupon can be exchanged in every country in the world in Stamps, their nominal value corresponds to the cheapest international letter. In this way, a sender may assume the cost of a response letter. The exchanged by the postal administrations in Stamps reply coupons are sent to the UPU, set off against the income from the sale of the respective postal reply coupons Administration and, if appropriate, reimbursed overspending.
UPU Congresses
( General ) Directors
The first nine directors (up to 1966) all came from Switzerland and were elected by the Federal Council. After the election was within the competence of the UPU Congresses.
Top -level domain
In early August 2012, the top -level domain. Registered post in the root zone of ICANN. The UPU occurs on a so-called sponsor of generic domain and is responsible for their assignment to third parties. However, there are foreseeable due to the high demands on registrars currently no providers that allow registration of. Mail domains. To use. Mail has not even the national postal organizations and postal service.