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CrimeFrance

How does Interpol work and what are the challenges?

May 17, 2023

The international criminal police organization Interpol turns 100 this year. Time to look at how it's helped make our world safer from crimes by catching global perpetrators — and where its so-called red notices have helped authoritarian regimes clamp down on the innocent.

https://p.dw.com/p/4RVHp

"If a country wanted to use the red notice system for persecutory reasons, they wouldn't spell it out in their request for the red notice that it’s politically motivated," said British human rights activist Bruno Min who works for the NGO Fair Trials. "Often, it's going to be disguised as a non-political offense, like fraud, or something like that."

Human rights organizations have also long criticized how states can essentially trap dissidents by simply declaring their passports lost or stolen – by using Interpol’s database. Turkey reportedly did exactly that following the coup attempt in 2016 with hundreds of thousands of passports. 

Report: Toni Neumann, voiced by Neil King 
 

Correction, May 25, 2023:

In addition to representatives from 20 European law enforcement agencies at the 1923 meeting in Vienna, representatives from Africa (Egypt), the Americas (United States of America) and Asia (Japan) also took part. We apologize for the error.

Sarah Steffen Sarah works as radio host and producer, reporter and editor.
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