Title 22 — Foreign Relations and IntercourseRelease 119-73

§288a Privileges, exemptions, and immunities of international organizations

Title 22 › Chapter CHAPTER 7— - INTERNATIONAL BUREAUS, CONGRESSES, ETC. › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER XVIII— - PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS › § 288a

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Give international organizations certain legal powers and protections. As allowed by their founding documents, they can make contracts, buy and sell land and other property, and bring legal cases. The organizations, and their property and assets wherever they are and whoever holds them, are protected from lawsuits and court actions like foreign governments are, unless the organization clearly gives up that protection for a case or a contract. Their property cannot be searched or seized without their clear consent, and their archives must not be opened or taken. For customs, import taxes, registering foreign agents, and handling official communications, they get the same privileges and exemptions that foreign governments receive.

Full Legal Text

Title 22, §288a

Foreign Relations and Intercourse — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

International organizations shall enjoy the status, immunities, exemptions, and privileges set forth in this section, as follows:

(a)International organizations shall, to the extent consistent with the instrument creating them, possess the capacity—

(i)to contract;

(ii)to acquire and dispose of real and personal property;

(iii)to institute legal proceedings.

(b)International organizations, their property and their assets, wherever located, and by whomsoever held, shall enjoy the same immunity from suit and every form of judicial process as is enjoyed by foreign governments, except to the extent that such organizations may expressly waive their immunity for the purpose of any proceedings or by the terms of any contract.

(c)Property and assets of international organizations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation. The archives of international organizations shall be inviolable.

(d)Insofar as concerns customs duties and internal-revenue taxes imposed upon or by reason of importation, and the procedures in connection therewith; the registration of foreign agents; and the treatment of official communications, the privileges, exemptions, and immunities to which international organizations shall be entitled shall be those accorded under similar circumstances to foreign governments.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

22 U.S.C. § 288a

Title 22 — Foreign Relations and Intercourse

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73