§ 288a. — Privileges, exemptions, and immunities of international organizations.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 22USC288a]
TITLE 22--FOREIGN RELATIONS AND INTERCOURSE
CHAPTER 7--INTERNATIONAL BUREAUS, CONGRESSES, ETC.
SUBCHAPTER XVIII--PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES OF INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATIONS
Sec. 288a. Privileges, exemptions, and immunities of
international organizations
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.
(Dec. 29, 1945, ch. 652, title I, Sec. 2, 59 Stat. 669.)
