Dismantling the Tools ofreport Oppression INTERPOL 2018 B. Background to INTERPOL 6. Headquartered in Lyon, INTERPOL is the world’s largest international policing institution. It connects the law enforcement authorities of 190 countries, enabling them to exchange information and cooperate in fighting crime. Aims and operation 7. INTERPOL’s Constitution states in Article 2 that INTERPOL’s aims are: ‘(i) to ensure and promote the widest possible mutual assistance between all criminal police authorities ...; and (ii) to establish and develop all institutions likely to contribute effectively to the prevention and suppression of ordinary-law crimes’. Its rules enumerate the limited purposes for which its systems can be used, grouped under the heading ‘purposes of international police cooperation’.3 8. INTERPOL discharges this function, primarily, by enabling information-exchange between national police forces. It maintains several databases containing, for example, information on lost and stolen travel documents, firearms, stolen works of art, stolen vehicles and stolen administrative documents. Its databases also include nominal data on known offenders, missing persons and dead bodies, including photographs and fingerprints. INTERPOL’s databases for all these purposes are connected to the NCBs by means of the secure global network called ‘I-24/7’. 9. INTERPOL is not a police force in itself. It has no powers to arrest anyone, investigate or prosecute crimes, but it occasionally deploys ‘Incident Response Teams’ to assist national police forces during joint cross-border operations or large-scale public events. 3 4 INTERPOL, Rules on the Processing of Data (‘RPD’), Article 10 INTERPOL’s Constitution, Articles 6 and 7 Structure and governance 10. INTERPOL’s organisational structure is established by its Constitution. The key parts of INTERPOL, as provided by the Constitution, are as follows: a. The General Assembly is the ‘supreme authority’ of the organisation and is composed of ‘delegates’, who should be experts in police affairs.4 INTERPOL publicises the involvement of some delegates, such as government ministers. The General Assembly meets at a plenary session once a year and establishes the rules governing INTERPOL’s activities. Acting on a two-thirds majority, it adopts formal rules in the form of appendices to the Constitution, and appoints the President of the organisation. Acting on a simple majority, it adopts resolutions on other policy issues. b. The Executive Committee supervises the execution of decisions of the General Assembly and oversees the work of the General Secretariat. It has the function, inter alia, of deciding upon an annual work programme for approval at each General Assembly session and handling certain disputes arising in the context of INTERPOL’s work. Members are elected by the General Assembly. The Executive Committee is headed by the President of INTERPOL, who is also elected by the General Assembly. The current president is Meng Hongwei (China) whose tenure comes to an end in 2020. c. The General Secretariat is the main executive body, which administers INTERPOL’s networks, databases and other activities, and acts as the contact point between INTERPOL and national police forces. It has its own legal 9