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Mahesh

23/02/24 09:08 AM IST

Interpol’s notices

In News
  • Concerns have been raised about the misuse of Interpol’s notice system, especially the issuance of blue corner notices, which are less scrutinised than their red corner notices.
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 also known as 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.
  • For instance, in January 2020, Interpol issued a blue corner notice to help locate fugitive self-styled godman Nithyananda.
Red corner v/s Blue 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.
  • While blue corner notices are issued prior to the filing of criminal charges, red corner notices generally follow criminal convictions.
  • 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.
  • 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.
Criticism
  • Although Interpol’s Constitution explicitly forbids any activities of a political character, activists have accused it of failing to enforce this rule. 
  • Much of this outrage is directed at Russia, which has repeatedly issued notices and diffusions for the arrest of Kremlin opponents.
  •  According to the U.S. rights organisation Freedom House, Russia is responsible for 38% of all public red notices.
  • International human rights groups have also accused China, Iran, Turkey, and Tunisia, among others, of abusing the agency’s notice system for authoritarian ends.
  • In response to the mounting criticism, Interpol toughened the oversight of its red notice system.
  • However, vulnerabilities remain when it comes to the issuance of blue notices with experts flagging that such notices are less likely to be reviewed before publication. The agency’s data shows that blue notices have roughly doubled in number over the past decade.
Source- The Hindu

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