
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[Laws in effect as of January 2, 2001]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 2, 2001 and January 28, 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.)
