Foreign policy and sanctions

Executive Order 13524: Amending Executive Order 12425 Designating Interpol as a Public International Organization Entitled To Enjoy Certain Privileges, Exemptions, and Immunities

President: Barack Obama

Extended additional privileges and immunities to INTERPOL in the United States while preserving limits in its original designation.

Status: In effect.

Is Executive Order 13524 still in effect? Yes. Active amendment extending specified International Organizations Immunities Act protections to INTERPOL.

What does Executive Order 13524 do?

EO 13524 amended President Reagan’s EO 12425 so INTERPOL receives specified property, archive, tax and legal-process protections available to designated international organizations. It did not give INTERPOL domestic police powers, authority to arrest people, or immunity for every employee and act.

Administration position: International-organization protections do not turn INTERPOL into a supranational police force; US arrests and searches still require US legal authority.
SignedDecember 16, 2009
Parent orderEO 12425
StatuteInternational Organizations Immunities Act

Before and after

Before the order

INTERPOL’s 1983 designation withheld several categories of statutory privileges.

After the order

Its official property and records received broader protections comparable to other designated organizations.

Who had to do what

Agency / officeActionTiming / position
Federal authoritiesRespect the designated immunitiesContinuing
INTERPOL WashingtonCoordinate international law-enforcement informationContinuing
US law-enforcement agenciesAct under domestic legal authorityContinuing

What happened next

EO 12425 designated INTERPOL with reservations.

EO 13524 removed most reservations.