This is the second in a series of posts addressing the current call for INTERPOL’s reform

Fair Trials International recently released a report containing its recommendations for change to INTERPOL’s current system.  The report, found here, includes two major areas for reform:

1.  Protection from abuse of INTERPOL’s tools by member countries, and

2.  Creation of a more fair and transparent process for individuals who are challenging data that has been processed by INTERPOL.

With regard to providing protection from abusive member countries, Fair Trials recommends several methods of correction to INTERPOL’s current activity.  One of these recommendations concerns INTERPOL’s treatment of cases wherein an individual who is the subject of a Red Notice has received asylum from another country.  

Currently, a Red Notice subject who has been granted asylum in another country may remain the subject of a Red Notice from the requesting member country.  This is true even where the grounds for the asylum are directly related to the case that generated the Red Notice.  Fair Trials rightly recommends that the granting of asylum for the same proceedings which give rise to the Red Notice should trigger the protections of INTERPOL’s Constitutional Article 3.  (Article 3 prohibits INTERPOL’s involvement with any matter of a political nature.)

This recommendation is a sound one, and would be very easily implemented by INTERPOL and the CCF.

When a domestic court rules on an asylum claim, it has necessarily considered the factual grounds both for and against the claim, as well as the legal basis for both positions. INTERPOL should recognize that, while it is the repository for data supplied by its member countries, once a court of competent jurisdiction has evaluated the case that gives rise to the data and found that the data breaches INTERPOL’s constitution because of a valid claim for asylum, INTERPOL must remove itself from any further involvement in the matter.

In the next post: what should be the minimum required documentation that a member country must supply in order to obtain a Red Notice?

As always, comments and thoughts are welcomed.