A. Introduction 1. The globalisation of criminal activity, resulting from the increased prevalence and sophistication of transnational criminal networks and the ease with which people can travel across borders, has rendered a purely national response to law enforcement and criminal justice anachronistic. The need for States to cooperate effectively in their law enforcement efforts has never been greater. INTERPOL provides valuable tools which facilitate such cooperation. This includes Red Notices and Diffusions, which are international wanted person alerts through which INTERPOL’s members (“Member States”) seek a person’s arrest and detention with a view to extradition (“INTERPOL alerts”). The significant growth in the use of INTERPOL alerts in recent years – from 2,343 Red Notices issued in 2005 to 12,787 issued in 2016, with a current total of 48,535 in global circulation 1 – is indicative of the value that Member States attribute to INTERPOL’s services. 2. The increased use of INTERPOL alerts has exacerbated the risks and potential scale of abuse, arising from the vulnerability of INTERPOL’s systems. Despite rules which prohibit the use of INTERPOL alerts for politically-motivated purposes, or in a manner which undermines human rights, INTERPOL has not been effective in policing its own systems. As a result, INTERPOL alerts have become weaponised, used by repressive states against exiled journalists, human rights defenders and political activists. The resulting impact on innocent people and their families is often severe, not only when arrest and detention take place, but also as a result of the numerous other consequences including restricted movement, frozen assets and reputational harm. Rise in the number of Red Notices issued between 2001 and 2016 14000 12,878 12000 10,718 10000 8,136 8000 5,020 4000 0 1 6 8,857 7,678 6000 2000 11,492 2,804 1,418 1,378 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Confirmed by INTERPOL as the figure for May 2017 3,126 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016