Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization (official abbreviation ICPO-INTERPOL; French: Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as INTERPOL (UK: /ˈɪnt.ər.pɒl/ INT-ər-pol, US: /-poʊl/ -pohl),[4] is an international organisation that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime control. Headquartered in Lyon, France, it has seven regional bureaus worldwide and a National Central Bureau in all 194 member states, making it the world's largest police organization.[5]
International Criminal Police Organisation Organisation internationale de police criminelle | |
---|---|
Common name | Interpol |
Abbreviation | ICPO-INTERPOL |
Motto | Connecting police for a safer world |
Agency overview | |
Formed | 1923 |
Preceding agencies |
|
Employees | 756 (2013)[1] |
Annual budget | €78 million (2013) €113 million (2017) |
Jurisdictional structure | |
International agency | |
Countries | 185 member countries |
Map of International Criminal Police Organisation's jurisdiction. | |
Governing body | INTERPOL General Assembly |
Constituting instrument | |
Operational structure | |
Headquarters | Lyon, France |
Agency executives |
|
Facilities | |
National Central Bureaus | 181 |
Website | |
www | |
INTERPOL originated with the first International Criminal Police Congress in 1914, which brought officials from 24 countries to discuss cooperation on law enforcement matters. It was founded in 1923 as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC), adopting many of its current duties throughout the 1930s. After coming under Nazi control in 1938, the agency was effectively moribund until after the Second World War. In 1956, the ICPC adopted a new constitution and the name INTERPOL, derived from its telegraphic address used since 1946.[6]
INTERPOL provides investigative support, expertise, and training to law enforcement worldwide, focusing on three major areas of transnational crime: terrorism, cybercrime, and organized crime. Its broad mandate covers virtually every kind of crime, including crimes against humanity, child pornography, drug trafficking and production, political corruption, copyright infringement, and white-collar crime. The agency also facilitates cooperation among national law enforcement institutions through criminal databases and communications networks. Contrary to popular belief, INTERPOL is itself not a law enforcement agency.
INTERPOL has an annual budget of around €113 million (GBP £99 million) (US$131 million), most of which comes from annual contributions by member police forces in 181 countries. It is governed by a General Assembly, composed of all member countries, which elects the Executive Committee and the President—currently Kim Jong Yang of South Korea—to supervise the implementation of INTERPOL's policies and administration. Day-to-day operations are carried out by the General Secretariat, comprising around 1,000 personnel from over 100 countries, including both police and civilians. The Secretariat is led by the Secretary General, currently Jürgen Stock, the former deputy head of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office.[1]
INTERPOL seeks to remain as politically neutral as possible so as to fulfill its mandate; hence its charter bars the organization from undertaking interventions or activities of a political, military, religious, or racial nature or involving itself in disputes over such matters.[7] The agency operates in four languages: Arabic, English, French, and Spanish.[5]
History
Until the 19th century, cooperation among police in different national and political jurisdictions was organized largely on an ad hoc basis, focused on a specific goal or criminal enterprise. The earliest attempt at a formal, permanent framework for international police coordination was the Police Union of German States, formed in 1851 to bring together police from various German-speaking states. It activities were centered mostly on political dissidents and criminals. A similar plan was launched by Italy in the 1898 Anti-Anarchist Conference of Rome, which brought delegates from 21 European countries to create a formal structure for addressing the international anarchist movement. Neither the conference, nor its follow up meeting in St. Petersburg in 1904, yielded results.
The early 20th century saw several more efforts to formalize international police cooperation, as growing international travel and commerce facilitated transnational criminal enterprises and fugitives of the law.[8] The earliest was the International Criminal Police Congress hosted by Monaco in 1914, which brought police and legal officials from two dozen countries to discuss international cooperation in investigating crimes, sharing investigative techniques, and extradition procedures.[9] The Monaco Congress laid out twelve principles and priorities that would eventually become foundational to INTERPOL, including providing direct contact between police in different nations; creating an international standard for forensics and data collection; and facilitating the efficient processing of extradition requests. The idea of an international police organization remained dormant due to the First World War. The United States attempted to lead a similar effort in 1922 through the International Police Conference in New York City, but it failed to attract international attention.[10]
A year later, in 1923, a new initiative was undertaken at another International Criminal Police Congress in Vienna, spearheaded by Johannes Schober, President of Viennese Police Department. The 22 delegates agreed to found the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC), the direct forerunner of INTERPOL, which would be based in Vienna. Founding members included police officials from Austria, Germany, Belgium, Poland, China, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia.[11] The same year, wanted persons notices were first published in the ICPC's International Public Safety Journal. The United Kingdom joined in 1928.[12] The United States did not join INTERPOL until 1938, although a U.S. police officer unofficially attended the 1923 congress.[13] By 1934, the ICPC's membership more than doubled to 58 nations.
Following Anschluss in 1938, the Viennese-based organization fell under the control of Nazi Germany, and the Commission's headquarters were eventually moved to Berlin in 1942.[14] Most member states withdrew their support during this period.[11] From 1938 to 1945, the presidents of the ICPC included Otto Steinhäusl, Reinhard Heydrich, Arthur Nebe, and Ernst Kaltenbrunner. All were generals in the SS, and Kaltenbrunner was the highest ranking SS officer executed after the Nuremberg Trials.
In 1946, after the end of World War II, the organization was revived as the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO) by officials from Belgium, France, Scandinavia and the UK. Its new headquarters were established in Paris, then from 1967 in Saint-Cloud, a Parisian suburb. They remained there until 1989, when they were moved to their present location in Lyon.
Until the 1980s, INTERPOL did not intervene in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals in accordance with Article 3 of its Charter, which prohibited intervention in "political" matters.[15]
In July 2010, former INTERPOL President Jackie Selebi was found guilty of corruption by the South African High Court in Johannesburg for accepting bribes worth €156,000 ($192,831) from a drug trafficker.[16] After being charged in January 2008, Selebi resigned as president of INTERPOL and was put on extended leave as National Police Commissioner of South Africa.[17] He was temporarily replaced by Arturo Herrera Verdugo, the National Commissioner of Investigations Police of Chile and former vice president for the American Zone, who remained acting president until the appointment of Khoo Boon Hui in October 2008.[18]
On 8 November 2012, the 81st General Assembly closed with the election of Deputy Central Director of the French Judicial Police, Mireille Ballestrazzi, as the first female president of the organization.[19][20]
In November 2016, Meng Hongwei, a politician from the People's Republic of China, was elected president during the 85th INTERPOL General Assembly, and was to serve in this capacity until 2020.[21] At the end of September 2018, Meng was reported missing during a trip to China, after being "taken away" for questioning by "discipline authorities".[22][23] Chinese police later confirmed that Meng had been arrested on charges of bribery as part of a national anti-corruption campaign.[24] On 7 October 2018, INTERPOL announced that Meng had resigned his post with immediate effect and that the Presidency would be temporarily occupied by INTERPOL Senior Vice-President (Asia) Kim Jong Yang of South Korea. On 21 November 2018, INTERPOL's General Assembly elected Kim to fill the remainder of Meng's term,[25] in a controversial election which saw accusations that the other candidate, Vice President Alexander Prokopchuk of Russia, had used INTERPOL notices to target critics of the Russian government.[26]
Constitution
The role of INTERPOL is defined by the general provisions of its constitution.[2]
Article 2 states that its role is:
- To ensure and promote the widest possible mutual assistance between all criminal police authorities within the limits of the laws existing in the different countries and in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- To establish and develop all institutions likely to contribute effectively to the prevention and suppression of ordinary law crimes.
Article 3 states:
It is strictly forbidden for the Organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.
Methodology
Contrary to frequent portrayals in popular culture, INTERPOL is not a supranational law enforcement agency and has no agents with arresting powers.[27] Instead, it is an international organization that functions as a network of criminal law enforcement agencies from different countries. The organization thus functions as an administrative liaison among the law enforcement agencies of the member countries, providing communications and database assistance, mostly through its central headquarters in Lyon.[28]
INTERPOL's collaborative form of cooperation is useful when fighting international crime because language, cultural, and bureaucratic differences can make it difficult for police officials from different nations to work together. For example, if U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents track a terrorist to Italy, they may not know whom to contact in the Polizia di Stato, whether the Carabinieri have jurisdiction over some aspect of the case, or who in the Italian government must be notified of the FBI's involvement. The FBI can contact the INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Italy, which would act as a liaison between the US and Italian law enforcement agencies.
INTERPOL's databases at the Lyon headquarters can assist law enforcement in fighting international crime.[27] While national agencies have their own extensive crime databases, the information rarely extends beyond one nation's borders. INTERPOL's databases can track criminals and crime trends around the world, specifically by means of authorized collections of fingerprints and face photos, lists of wanted persons, DNA samples, and travel documents. INTERPOL's lost and stolen travel document database alone contains more than 12 million records. Officials at the headquarters also analyze these data and release information on crime trends to the member countries.
An encrypted Internet-based worldwide communications network allows INTERPOL agents and member countries to contact each other at any time. Known as I-24/7, the network offers constant access to INTERPOL's databases.[27] While the National Central Bureaus are the primary access sites to the network, some member countries have expanded it to key areas such as airports and border access points. Member countries can also access each other's criminal databases via the I-24/7 system.
INTERPOL issued 13,637 notices in 2013, of which 8,857 were Red Notices, compared to 4,596 in 2008 and 2,037 in 2003. As of 2013, there are currently 52,880 valid notices in circulation.[1]
In the event of an international disaster, terrorist attack, or assassination, INTERPOL can send an Incident Response Team (IRT). IRTs can offer a range of expertise and database access to assist with victim identification, suspect identification, and the dissemination of information to other nations' law enforcement agencies. In addition, at the request of local authorities, they can act as a central command and logistics operation to coordinate other law enforcement agencies involved in a case. Such teams were deployed eight times in 2013.[1] INTERPOL began issuing its own travel documents in 2009 with hopes that nations would remove visa requirements for individuals traveling for INTERPOL business, thereby improving response times.[29] In September 2017, the organization voted to accept Palestine and the Solomon Islands as members.[30]
Finances
In 2013, INTERPOL's operating income was €78 million ($104 million), of which 68 percent was contributed by member countries, mostly in the form of statutory contributions (67 percent) and 26 percent came from externally funded projects, private foundations, and commercial enterprises. Financial income and reimbursements made up the other six percent of the total.[1] With the goal of enhancing the collaboration between INTERPOL and the private sector to support INTERPOL's missions, the INTERPOL Foundation for a Safer World was created in 2013. Although legally independent of INTERPOL, the relationship between the two is close enough for INTERPOL's president to obtain in 2015 the departure of HSBC CEO from the foundation board after the Swiss Leaks allegations.[31]
From 2004 to 2010, INTERPOL's external auditors was the French Court of Audit.[32][33] In November 2010, the Court of Audit was replaced by the Office of the Auditor General of Norway for a three-year term with an option for a further three years.[34][35]
Criticism
Abusive requests for INTERPOL arrests
Despite its politically neutral stance, some have criticized the agency for its role in arrests that critics contend were politically motivated.[36] In their declaration, adopted in Oslo (2010),[37] Monaco (2012),[38] Istanbul (2013),[39] and Baku (2014),[40] the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) criticized some OSCE member States for their abuse of mechanisms of the international investigation and urged them to support the reform of INTERPOL in order to avoid politically motivated prosecution. The resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of 31 January 2014 criticizes the mechanisms of operation of the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL's files, in particular, non-adversarial procedures and unjust decisions.[41][42] In 2014, PACE adopted a decision to thoroughly analyse the problem of the abuse of INTERPOL and to compile a special report on this matter.[43] In May 2015, within the framework of the preparation of the report, the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights organized a hearing, during which both representatives of NGOs and INTERPOL had the opportunity to speak.[44]
Refugees who are included in the list of INTERPOL can be arrested when crossing the border.[45] In the year 2008, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees pointed to the problem of arrests of refugees on the request of INTERPOL[46] in connection with politically motivated charges.
World
Organizations such as Detained in Dubai, Open Dialog Foundation,[47] Fair Trials International,[45] Centre for Peace Studies,[48] and International Consortium of Investigative Journalists,[49] indicate that non-democratic states use INTERPOL to harass opposition politicians, journalists, human rights activists, and businessmen. The countries accused of abusing the agency include China, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iran, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Tunisia.[47][45][49][50]
The Open Dialog Foundation's report analysed 44 high-profile political cases which went through the INTERPOL system.[47] A number of persons who have been granted refugee status in the European Union (EU) and the U.S.—including Russian businessman Andrey Borodin,[51] Chechen Arbi Bugaev,[52] Kazakh opposition politician Mukhtar Ablyazov[53] and his associate Artur Trofimov,[54] and Sri Lankan journalist Chandima Withana[55] —continue to remain on the public INTERPOL list. Some of the refugees remain on the list even after courts have refused to extradite them to a non-democratic state (for example, Pavel Zabelin,[56] a witness in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Alexandr Pavlov,[57] former security chief of the Kazakh oppositionist Ablyazov).
Eastern Europe
The 2013 PACE's Istanbul Declaration of the OSCE cited specific cases of such prosecution, including those of the Russian activist Petr Silaev, financier William Browder, businessman Ilya Katsnelson, Belarusian politician Ales Michalevic, and Ukrainian politician Bohdan Danylyshyn.
On 25 July 2014, despite INTERPOL's Constitution prohibiting them from undertaking any intervention or activities of a political or military nature,[58] the Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary leader Dmytro Yarosh was placed on INTERPOL's international wanted list at the request of Russian authorities,[59] which made him the only person wanted internationally after the beginning of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia in 2014. For a long time, INTERPOL refused to place former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych on the wanted list as a suspect by the new Ukrainian government for the mass killing of protesters during Euromaidan.[60][61] Yanukovych was eventually placed on the wanted list on 12 January 2015.[62] However, on 16 July 2015, after an intervention of Joseph Hage Aaronson, the British law firm hired by Yanukovych, the international arrest warrant against the former president of Ukraine was suspended pending further review.[63] In December 2014, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) liquidated a sabotage and reconnaissance group that was led by a former agent of the Ukrainian Bureau of INTERPOL that also has family relations in the Ukrainian counter-intelligence agencies.[64] In 2014, Russia made attempts to place Ukrainian politician Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Ukrainian civic activist Pavel Ushevets, subject to criminal persecution in Russia following his pro-Ukrainian art performance in Moscow, on the INTERPOL wanted list.[65]
Middle East
According to a report by the Stockholm Center for Freedom that was issued in September 2017, Turkey has weaponized INTERPOL mechanisms to hunt down legitimate critics and opponents in violation of INTERPOL's own constitution. The report lists abuse cases where not only arrest warrants but also revocation of travel documents and passports were used by Turkey as persecution tools against critics and opponents. The harassment campaign targeted foreign companies as well.[66] Syrian-Kurd Salih Muslim was briefly detained at Turkey’s request on 25 February 2018 in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic,[67] but was released 2 days later, drawing angry protests from Turkey.[68] On 17 March 2018, the Czech authorities dismissed Turkey's request as lacking merit.[69]
Appeals and requests withdrawals
The procedure for filing an appeal with INTERPOL is a long and complex one. For example, the Venezuelan journalist Patricia Poleo and a colleague of Kazakh activist Ablyazov, and Tatiana Paraskevich, who were granted refugee status, sought to overturn the politically motivated request for as long as one and a half years, and six months, respectively.[70][71][72]
INTERPOL has previously recognized some requests to include persons on the wanted list as politically motivated, e.g., Indonesian activist Benny Wenda, Georgian politician Givi Targamadze,[73] ex-president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili,[74] and ex-president of Honduras Manuel Zelaya Rosales;[75] these persons have subsequently been removed. However, in most cases, INTERPOL removes a Red Notice against refugees only after an authoritarian state closes a criminal case or declares amnesty (for example, the cases of Russian activists and political refugees Petr Silaev, Denis Solopov, and Aleksey Makarov, as well as the Turkish sociologist and feminist Pinar Selek).[76][77][78][79]
Diplomacy
In 2016, Taiwan criticised INTERPOL for turning down their application to join the General Assembly as an observer.[80] The United States of America supported Taiwan's participation, and the US Congress passed legislation directing the Secretary of State to develop a strategy to obtain observer status for Taiwan.[81]
The election of Meng Hongwei as president and Alexander Prokopchuk, a Russian, as vice president of INTERPOL for Europe drew criticism in western media and raised fears of INTERPOL accepting politically motivated requests from China and Russia.[82][83][84]
Business
In 2013, INTERPOL was criticised over its multimillion-dollar deals with such private sector bodies as FIFA, Philip Morris, and the pharmaceutical industry. The criticism was mainly about the lack of transparency and potential conflicts of interest, such as Codentify.[85][86][87][88][89][90] After the 2015 FIFA scandal, the organization has severed ties with all the private-sector bodies that evoked such criticism, and has adopted a new and transparent financing framework.
Leadership
After the disappearance of Meng Hongwei, four American senators accused his presumptive successor, Alexander Prokopchuk, of abusing Red Notices, likening his election to "putting a fox in charge of the henhouse".[91] A statement posted by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and signed by other NGO's raised concerns about his ability to use his INTERPOL position to silence Russia's critics.[92] Russian politicians criticized the U.S. accusation as politically motivated interference.[93]
Reform
From 1 to 3 July 2015, INTERPOL organized a session of the Working Group on the Processing of Information, which was formed specifically in order to verify the mechanisms of information processing. The Working Group heard the recommendations of civil society as regards the reform of the international investigation system and promised to take them into account, in light of possible obstruction or refusal to file crime reports nationally.[94]
The Open Dialog Foundation, a human rights organization, recommended that INTERPOL, in particular: create mechanism for the protection of rights of people having international refugee status; initiate closer cooperation of the Commission for the Control of Files with human rights NGOs and experts on asylum and extradition; enforce sanctions for violations of INTERPOL's rules; strengthen cooperation with NGOs, the UN, OSCE, the PACE, and the European Parliament.[95]
Fair Trials International proposed to create effective remedies for individuals who are wanted under a Red Notice on unfair charges; to penalize nations which frequently abuse the INTERPOL system; to ensure more transparency of INTERPOL's work.[96]
The Centre for Peace Studies also created recommendations for INTERPOL, in particular to delete Red Notices and Diffusions for people who were granted refugee status according to 1951 Refugee Convention issued by their countries of origin, and to establish an independent body to review Red Notices on a regular basis.[48]
Emblem
The current emblem of INTERPOL was adopted in 1950 and includes the following elements:[6]
- the globe indicates worldwide activity
- the olive branches represent peace
- the sword represents police action
- the scales signify justice
- the acronyms "OIPC" and "ICPO", representing the full name of the organization in both English and French.
Members
Membership as of March 2018, with acceptance date[97] as well as the corresponding representative entity of the nation are as follows:
- Afghanistan – October 2002
- Albania – November 1991
- Algeria – August 1963
- Andorra – November 1987
- Angola – October 1982
- Antigua and Barbuda – October 1986
- Argentina – June 1956
- Armenia – November 1992
- Aruba – November 1987
- Australia – June 1956
- Austria – June 1956
- Azerbaijan – November 1992
- Bahamas – October 1973
- Bahrain – September 1972
- Bangladesh – October 1976
- Barbados – November 1981
- Belarus – September 1993
- Belgium – June 1956
- Belize – November 1987
- Benin – September 1962
- Bhutan – September 2005
- Bolivia – August 1963
- Bosnia and Herzegovina – November 1992
- Botswana – November 1980
- Brazil – October 1986
- Brunei – September 1984
- Bulgaria – November 1989
- Burkina Faso – September 1961
- Burundi – October 1970
- Cambodia – June 1956
- Cameroon – September 1961
- Canada – June 1956
- Cape Verde – November 1989
- Central African Republic – June 1965
- Chad – September 1962
- Chile – June 1956
- China – September 1961
- Colombia – June 1956
- Comoros – October 1998
- Republic of the Congo – September 1961
- Democratic Republic of the Congo – August 1963
- Costa Rica – June 1956
- Côte d'Ivoire – September 1961
- Croatia – November 1992
- Cuba – June 1956
- Curaçao – October 2011
- Cyprus – September 1962
- Czech Republic – September 1993
- Denmark – June 1956
- Djibouti – November 1980
- Dominica – November 1981
- Dominican Republic – June 1956
- East Timor – October 2002
- Ecuador – September 1962
- Egypt – June 1956
- El Salvador – December 1959
- Equatorial Guinea – November 1980
- Eritrea – November 1999
- Estonia – November 1992
- Eswatini – October 1975
- Ethiopia – September 1958
- Fiji – September 1971
- Finland – June 1956
- France – June 1956
- Gabon – September 1961
- Gambia – October 1986
- Georgia – September 1993
- Germany – June 1956
- Ghana – September 1958
- Greece – June 1956
- Grenada – October 1986
- Guatemala – June 1956
- Guinea – September 1961
- Guinea-Bissau – November 1992
- Guyana – October 1968
- Haiti – June 1957
- Honduras – September 1974
- Hungary – November 1981
- Iceland – September 1971
- India – June 1956, official liaison by CBI[98]
- Indonesia – June 1956
- Iran – June 1956
- Iraq – September 1967
- Ireland – June 1956
- Israel – June 1956
- Italy – June 1956
- Jamaica – August 1963
- Japan – June 1956
- Jordan – June 1956
- Kazakhstan – November 1992
- Kenya – October 1968
- Kiribati – November 2018
- Kuwait – June 1965
- Kyrgyzstan – October 1996
- Laos – June 1957
- Lebanon – June 1956
- Latvia – November 1992
- Lesotho – September 1971
- Liberia – June 1956
- Libya – June 1956
- Liechtenstein – October 1960
- Lithuania – November 1991
- Luxembourg – June 1956
- Madagascar – September 1961
- Malawi – August 1966
- Malaysia – September 1961
- Maldives – September 1984
- Mali – October 1969
- Malta – September 1972
- Marshall Islands – September 1990
- Mauritania – September 1962
- Mauritius – October 1969
- Mexico – June 1956
- Republic of Moldova – September 1994
- Monaco – June 1956
- Mongolia – November 1991
- Montenegro – September 2006
- Morocco – June 1957
- Mozambique – November 1989
- Myanmar – June 1956
- Namibia – November 1992
- Nauru – September 1971
- Nepal – September 1967
- Netherlands – June 1956
- New Zealand – June 1956
- Nicaragua – June 1965
- Niger – September 1964
- Nigeria – October 1960
- North Macedonia – September 1993
- Norway – June 1956
- Oman – September 1972
- Pakistan – June 1956
- Palestine – September 2017
- Panama – September 1958
- Papua New Guinea – October 1976
- Paraguay – September 1977
- Peru – September 1962
- Philippines – June 1956
- Poland – September 1990
- Portugal – June 1956
- Qatar – September 1974
- Romania – October 1973
- Russia – September 1990
- Rwanda – September 1974
- Saint Kitts and Nevis – November 1987
- Saint Lucia – October 1983
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – October 1985
- Samoa – October 2009
- Sao Tome and Principe – November 1988
- Saudi Arabia – June 1956
- San Marino – September 2006
- Senegal – September 1961
- Serbia – September 1956
- Seychelles – September 1977
- Sierra Leone – September 1962
- Singapore – October 1968
- Sint Maarten – October 2011
- Slovakia – September 1993
- Slovenia – November 1992
- Solomon Islands – September 2017
- Somalia – October 1975
- South Africa – September 1993
- South Korea – September 1964
- South Sudan – October 2011
- Spain – June 1956
- Sri Lanka – June 1956
- Sudan – June 1956
- Suriname – June 1956
- Sweden – June 1956
- Switzerland– June 1956
- Syria – June 1956
- Tajikistan – October 2004
- Tanzania – September 1962
- Thailand – June 1956
- Togo – October 1960
- Tonga – September 1979
- Trinidad and Tobago – September 1964
- Tunisia – June 1957
- Turkey – June 1956
- Turkmenistan – September 2005
- Uganda – August 1966
- Ukraine – November 1992
- United Arab Emirates – October 1973
- United Kingdom – June 1956
- United States – June 1956
- Uruguay – June 1956
- Uzbekistan – September 1994
- Vanuatu – November 2018
- Vatican City – October 2008
- Venezuela – June 1956
- Vietnam – November 1991
- Yemen – October 1976
- Zambia – August 1966
- Zimbabwe – November 1980
UN member states without membership
Partially recognized states and entities without membership or sub-bureau status
Unrecognized states without membership or sub-bureau status
Offices
In addition to its General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, INTERPOL maintains seven regional bureaus and three special representative offices:[101]
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Brussels, Belgium (special representative office to the European Union)
- Yaoundé, Cameroon
- Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
- San Salvador, El Salvador
- Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (special representative office to the African Union)
- Nairobi, Kenya
- Bangkok, Thailand
- New York City, United States (special representative office to the United Nations)[lower-alpha 2]
- Harare, Zimbabwe
INTERPOL's Command and Coordination Centres offer a 24-hour point of contact for national police forces seeking urgent information or facing a crisis. The original is in Lyon with a second in Buenos Aires added in September 2011. A third was opened in Singapore in September 2014.[102]
INTERPOL opened a Special Representative Office to the UN in New York City in 2004[103] and to the EU in Brussels in 2009.[104]
The organization has constructed the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) in Singapore to act as its research and development facility, and a place of cooperation on digital crimes investigations. It was officially opened in April 2015, but had already become active beforehand. Most notably, a worldwide takedown of the SIMDA botnet infrastructure was coordinated and executed from IGCI's Cyber Fusion Centre in the weeks before the opening, as was revealed at the launch event.[105]
Secretaries-general and presidents
Secretaries-general since organization's inception in 1923:
No. | Secretaries-general | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Nationality | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Oskar Dressler | 1923 | 1946 | 22–23 years | Austria | |
2 | Louis Ducloux | 1946 | 1951 | 4–5 years | France | |
3 | Marcel Sicot | 1951 | 1963 | 11–12 years | France | |
4 | Jean Népote | 1963 | 26 October 1978 | 14–15 years | France | |
5 | André Bossard | October 1978 | October 1985 | 7 years | France | |
6 | Raymond Kendall (born 1933) | October 1985 | 2 October 2000 | 15 years | United Kingdom | |
7 | Ronald Noble (born 1956) | 3 November 2000 | 7 November 2014 | 14 years | United States | |
8 | Jürgen Stock (born 1959) | 7 November 2014 | Incumbent | 5 years | Germany |
Presidents since organization's inception in 1923:
Country of origin | Name | In office |
---|---|---|
Austria | Johann Schober | 1923–1932 |
Austria | Franz Brandl | 1932–1934 |
Austria | Eugen Seydel | 1934–1935 |
Austria | Michael Skubl | 1935–1938 |
Germany | Otto Steinhäusl | 1938–1940 |
Germany | Reinhard Heydrich | 1940–1942 |
Germany | Arthur Nebe | 1942–1943 |
Germany | Ernst Kaltenbrunner | 1943–1945 |
Belgium | Florent Louwage | 1945–1956 |
Portugal | Agostinho Lourenço | 1956–1960 |
UK | Sir Richard Jackson | 1960–1963 |
Finland | Fjalar Jarva | 1963–1964 |
Belgium | Firmin Franssen | 1964–1968 |
West Germany | Paul Dickopf | 1968–1972 |
Canada | William Leonard Higgitt | 1972–1976 |
Sweden | Carl Persson | 1976–1980 |
Philippines | Jolly Bugarin | 1980–1984 |
USA | John Simpson | 1984–1988 |
France | Ivan Barbot | 1988–1992 |
Canada | Norman Inkster | 1992–1994 |
Sweden | Björn Eriksson | 1994–1996 |
Japan | Toshinori Kanemoto | 1996–2000 |
Spain | Jesús Espigares Mira | 2000–2004 |
South Africa | Jackie Selebi | 2004–2008 |
Chile | Arturo Herrera Verdugo | 2008 (acting) |
Singapore | Khoo Boon Hui | 2008–2012 |
France | Mireille Ballestrazzi | 2012–2016 |
China | Meng Hongwei | 2016–2018 |
South Korea | Kim Jong Yang | 2018–present |
See also
- Federal Investigation Agency
- Cybercrime
- Europol, a similar EU-wide organization.
- Intelligence assessment
- International Criminal Court
- INTERPOL notice
- INTERPOL Terrorism Watch List
- INTERPOL Travel Document
- InterPortPolice
- UN Police
Notes
- Taiwan was an Interpol member as the Republic of China until 1984, when it was replaced by the People's Republic of China. Taiwan was offered an option to continue as China's sub-bureau under name "Taiwan, China", but as this could imply that Taiwan was part of the People's Republic of China, it refused and withdrew from the organization.
- Interpol also maintains a liaison office to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna
References
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- "Constitution of the International Criminal Police Organization" (PDF). INTERPOL. 1956. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 February 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
- "General Regulations of the International Criminal Police Organization" (PDF). Interpol, Office of Legal Affairs. 1956. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 February 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
- Wells, John (3 April 2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
- "General Secretariat". www.interpol.int. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
- "Name and logo". INTERPOL. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
- "Neutrality (Article 3 of the Constitution)". INTERPOL. Archived from the original on 31 March 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
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- Member countries
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Further reading
- Khodorkovsky, Mikhail (20 November 2018). "In Putin's era it's crazy to let a Russian lead Interpol. We must prevent it". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Interpol. |
- Official website
- INTERPOL Foundation for a Safer World
- Deflem, Mathieu. 2016. "INTERPOL." In The Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, edited by Wesley G. Jennings. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Deflem, Mathieu. 2007. "International Police Cooperation Against Terrorism: INTERPOL and Europol in Comparison." Pp. 17–25 in Understanding and Responding to Terrorism, edited by H. Durmaz, B. Sevinc, A.S. Yayla, and S. Ekici. Amsterdam: IOS Press.