UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette) is a Non-Governmental Organization affiliated to UNESCO bringing together people from around the world who contribute to the development of the art of puppetry with the objective of using this art in the pursuit of human values such as peace and mutual understanding between peoples regardless of race, political or religious convictions and differences in culture, in accordance with the respect for fundamental human rights as defined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10th 1948.

The chronicle of UNIMA - the international association of puppeteers - began in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on the 20th May 1929, the occasion of the Fifth Convention of Czech Puppeteers, an event to which guests had been invited from Bulgaria, France, Yugoslavia, Germany, Austria, Romania and the Soviet Union. In the congenial atmosphere, the idea to found an international puppeteers' organization was formed.

UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette) in a short time built itself up form a small circle of friends into a world organization. It is notable, from the point of view of cultural history, that UNIMA was the first international body in the world of theatre.