The International Boundary and Water Commission (Spanish: Comisión Internacional de Límites y Aguas) is an international body created by the United States and Mexico in 1889 to apply the rules for determining the location of their international boundary when meandering rivers transferred tracts of land from one bank to the other, as established under the Convention of November 12, 1884.
The organization was created as the International Boundary Commission by the Convention of 1889 between the United States and Mexico. It was given its present name under the 1944 Treaty relating to the Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande. Under these agreements, the IBWC has a U.S. section and a Mexican section, headquartered in the adjoining cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. The U.S. section is administered by the Department of State; the Mexican part by the Secretariat of Foreign Relations.
Some of the rights and obligations administered by the IBWC include:
The U.S. and Mexican commissioners meet at least weekly, alternating the place of meetings and are in almost daily contact with one another. Each section maintains its own engineering staff, a secretary and such legal advisers and other assistants as it deems necessary.