PACE has welcomed recent steps taken by Interpol to end the abuse of Red Notices and Wanted Persons Diffusions, but says more needs to be done to improve the transparency of Interpol’s work and to strengthen accountability, given the “misuse of the co-operation mechanisms by authoritarian States for political and corrupt purposes”.
Approving a report by Aleksander Pociej (Poland, EPP/CD), the Assembly said the global police body had a “vital role” to play in the fight against impunity, and welcomed the fact that it had implemented, or was in the process of implementing, many of the recommendations made by the Assembly in a 2017 report.
However, it also listed a series of further reforms Interpol could make to ensure that its procedures were not abused by certain countries for political or corrupt purposes – including disclosing data on how effective its review processes are, still better preventive and ex post scrutiny of Red Notices and Diffusions, and the setting up of a compensation fund for victims of abuses of Interpol mechanisms funded by countries frequently found abusing the system.
“A reasonable balance must be struck between the legitimate interest in preventing impunity for serious crimes, which themselves violate human rights, and the rights of the person targeted by an extradition request,” the parliamentarians said in a resolution.
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The Assembly also called for improved extradition proceedings in general, and spelled out a number of ways that Council of Europe member States could set an example of good co-operation in this field.
PACE