About

OIMAP was established by a founding treaty, the 2007 Statutes. It has international legal personality and acts in the service of its Member States. Its official languages are French, English and Spanish.

Its mandate is summed up in six missions: observing the market, regulating, protecting heritage, certifying, training and arbitrating. Each is entrusted to a directorate of the General Secretariat and monitored by a standing committee.

The General Assembly is the supreme body: each State has one vote and it meets every year. Its 19th session takes place in Singapore from 10 to 12 June 2026. The Executive Council, with fifteen members, prepares and follows up decisions between sessions.

Five standing committees examine questions of finance and audit, certification and standards, protection and restitution, arbitration and professional ethics, and cooperation and training.

The Secretary-General, Dr. Philippe Aubert de Vincelles, is elected by the General Assembly for four years, renewable once. He leads a Secretariat of about 410 staff members of 52 nationalities (indicative), organized into nine directorates.

The Secretariat implements the decisions of the bodies, manages services to users and represents the Organization before its partners.

The Paris headquarters houses the leadership and most of the services. The offices in Geneva, New York, Singapore and Nairobi ensure proximity to the regions: liaison with the UN and the WTO and monitoring of the Middle East for Geneva, and the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Africa for the others.

Each office page indicates its missions, contacts and access.

The Organization publishes its accounts, subjects its purchases to competition and has adopted a code of conduct, a confidential reporting procedure and rules on conflicts of interest. These commitments appear in the Transparency, Financial Reports and Ethics and Integrity sections.