Are Interpol’s notices being politically exploited?

Are Interpol’s notices being politically exploited?

Subject: IR

Section: Int organisation

Interpol: 

The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) comprises 194 member countries was established in 1923.

• It does not work under UN.
• It has enjoyed a special role–that of Permanent Observer at the United Nations – since 1996.
• It is headquartered at Lyon, France.

Role:

As an information-sharing network to enable national police forces to combat transnational crimes. 

Four Global Programmes of Interpol: 

What are the concerns: 

• About the misuse of Interpol’s notice system, especially the issuance of blue corner notices (less scrutinised than their red corner notices).
• Critics argument:
• Countries often exploit existing protocols to target political refugees and dissidents. 
• While efforts have been made to address this.
• But still questions remain about striking a balance between facilitating police cooperation and preventing misuse of this powerful tool.

What is a “blue corner” notice?

• There are seven types of notices issued by Interpol — Red Notice, Yellow Notice, Blue Notice, Black Notice, Green Notice, Orange Notice, and Purple Notice.

• A blue corner notice (or an “enquiry notice”) allows police forces in member states to share critical crime-related information such as obtaining a person’s criminal record, and location and, having his or her identity verified among others. Example: In January 2020, Interpol issued a blue corner notice to help locate fugitive self-styled godman Nithyananda.

How does “blue corner” notice differ from a “red corner” notice?

What is a red corner notice?

• A red corner notice is issued by a member state to arrest a wanted criminal through extradition or any other similar lawful action.
• Such notices are issued against persons wanted by national jurisdictions for prosecution or to serve a sentence based on an arrest warrant or a court decision. The country issuing the request need not be the home country of the fugitive.
• Interpol acts even on the request of a country where the alleged crime has been committed.

Differences: 

• While blue corner notices are issued prior to the filing of criminal charges, red corner notices generally follow criminal convictions.

Impact of notices:

• The concerned individual can be stopped and arrested while travelling through a member state.
• There will also be other detrimental consequences such as the closure of bank accounts.

Discretionary in nature: 

• However, Interpol cannot compel law enforcement authorities in any country to arrest the subject of a red corner notice as the exercise of such powers is entirely discretionary.

Case study: 

• In 2018, a red corner notice was issued against fugitive billionaire Nirav Modi in relation to the Punjab National Bank scam.
• However, in October 2022, Interpol rejected a second request by India to issue such a notice against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, whom the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has listed as a “terrorist.”

Reason by Interpol:

India has failed to provide sufficient information to support its case and that his activities have a “clear political dimension.”

Is the notice system prone to misuse?

Rule: Interpol’s Constitution explicitly forbids any activities of a political character.

However, Interpol failed to enforce the above rule as highlighted below: 

As accusation by activists: 

• It is directed at Russia, which has repeatedly issued notices and diffusions for the arrest of Kremlin opponents, a political character activity .
• Data: According to the U.S. rights organisation Freedom House, Russia is responsible for 38% of all public red notices.
• Accusation by International human rights groups: 
• Against China, Iran, Turkey, and Tunisia etc. of abusing the agency’s notice system for authoritarian ends i.e. again a political character activity.

Response of accusation by Interpol: 

• Interpol toughened the oversight of its red notice system.

Still vulnerabilities remain:

• According to experts vulnerabilities remain in Blue notices issuances.

Reason: Blue notices are less likely to be reviewed before publication.

Impact: As per the agency’s data that blue notices have roughly doubled in number over the past decade.

Reaction of countries : 

But countries like Turkey argue that such restraint in the issuance of notices hampers police cooperation and that the West should not interfere with their internal affairs.