INTERPOL, the world’s largest law enforcement coordination network, remains a pathway for authoritarian regimes to extend political persecution far beyond their borders. By using INTERPOL’s global communications network to disseminate politically motivated wanted notices, fabricated reports of “lost or stolen” passports, and other fraudulent police bulletins, dictators can secure the extradition or detention of dissidents, journalists, activists, and their family members. Such authoritarian manipulation—which violates INTERPOL’s constitution—can even infect the rule of law in democratic countries. For example, some U.S. agencies have at times unwittingly based their law enforcement actions on trumped up warrants dispatched by overseas despots.
In 2021, the Helsinki Commission led the introduction and passage of the Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention (TRAP) Act to tackle authoritarian abuse of INTERPOL. The law required the executive branch to file periodic reports on its efforts to stem this abuse by enacting domestic safeguards and promoting reforms at INTERPOL headquarters. For the first time, it legally prohibited U.S. agencies from extraditing individuals solely based on INTERPOL communications.
This briefing will convene experts to evaluate the current state of politically motivated abuses of INTERPOL, U.S. efforts to implement the TRAP Act three years after passage, and prospects for further action to address INTERPOL abuse. Panelists bring extensive academic expertise in INTERPOL’s inner-workings, real-world experience within INTERPOL’s governance structures, and legal proficiency in challenging abusive INTERPOL notices in the United States’s judicial system.
