service, the Office of Legal Affairs, which provides advice on the compliance of INTERPOL’s work with international legal standards and the rules adopted by the General Assembly. The General Secretariat is headed by the Secretary General, who oversees the day-to-day work of INTERPOL. The Secretary General is appointed by the General Assembly. Their terms last five years, and they can be re-elected. The current Secretary General is Jurgen Stock (Germany), who was elected in 2014. d. The Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files (‘CCF’) is a body tasked with overseeing INTERPOL’s information-processing. The CCF’s structure has undergone significant changes in recent years, which are explained in more detail below. The CCF’s chairperson is appointed by the CCF members themselves. The current chairperson is Vitalie Pirlog (Moldova). Relationship to national police and other entities 11. The other key part of the INTERPOL architecture is the network of National Central Bureaus (‘NCBs’). The NCBs are the sections of each of the national police authorities which act as the contact point with INTERPOL, supply information for its databases, and use its systems for police cooperation. 12. The NCB for each member country serves as a contact point for INTERPOL. The NCB is most often a division of the national police force responsible for serious crime and/or cross-border cooperation. Although they are not formally part of the organisation, NCBs are often referred to as ‘INTERPOL’. 10 For example, the United Kingdom’s NCB is called ‘INTERPOL Manchester’, and China’s NCB goes by the name of ‘INTERPOL Beijing’. These bodies typically fall within the overall competence of the Ministries of the Interior of each country. The NCBs share information with INTERPOL and, through its channels, other NCBs all over the world. Since 1994, INTERPOL has also worked with international criminal tribunals such as the International Criminal Court, 22 issuing Red Notices seeking the arrest of persons accused of offences falling within the remit of the relevant court. 13. In practice, it is not only the NCB itself which will have access to INTERPOL’s files. INTERPOL’s rules allow the NCBs to authorise other law enforcement agencies within the relevant country to use the systems. One key ‘user’ of INTERPOL’s systems is the corps of border control officials, often agents of the immigration authorities or border police, who carry out identity and travel document checks and can cross-reference names against INTERPOL databases. ‘INTERPOL alerts’ 14. One of the main tools used by INTERPOL to facilitate international police cooperation is its system of notices. INTERPOL notices are requests for cooperation or alerts which are disseminated to NCBs through INTERPOL. These notices are colour-coded depending on the type of cooperation sought. For example, yellow notices are used to locate missing persons, and green notices are used to warn NCBs about individuals who are likely to commit crimes. INTERPOL’s notices system is complemented by Diffusions, discussed further below, which can be used to seek the same types of cooperation from NCBs, but in a less formal way.