Interpol and international justice: are authoritarian states using the system to silence dissent?
The Foreign Policy Centre is delighted to host a Westminster seminar, kindly supported by the Open Dialog Foundation, that aims to address important issues around the use and potential abuse of Interpol's legal mechanisms by authoritarian states. The event will examine the potential misuse of Interpol 'Red Notices', the international instruments that seek to locate and arrest those wanted by law enforcement agencies with a view to extradite or undertake similar lawful action, at the request of a member government. The use of Red Notices has come under fire from campaigners who argue that the mechanism is being used by authoritarian states to pressurise and potentially extradite dissident voices living in exile. There have been a number of recent high profile Red Notice cases including Bill Browder, former Ukrainian Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn, Russian environmental activist Petr Silaev, West Papuan independence campaigner Benny Wenda, Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari and several examples involving Kazakhstan.
The event will explore how effective Interpol is in upholding human rights values and complying with its own 'neutrality clause'. Red Notice subjects are required to appeal to the independent Commission for the Control of Interpol's Files (CCF). The event can explore whether the CCF has the capacity it needs to deal with political cases swiftly and fairly. The event could also examine how Interpol can work more effectively with other international institutions, civil society and external experts to improve its understanding of potential political cases submitted by its member states and look at how foreign and home affairs ministries can work to improve cooperation around challenging cases. The event will seek to place these issues within the wider debate around the UK's engagement with other international legal mechanisms such as the European Court of Human Rights and the European arrest warrant.
Chair: Peter Oborne, Chief Political Commentator, Daily Telegraph
Speakers:
- Libby McVeigh, Head of Law Reform, Fair Trials International
- Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President, Open Dialog Foundation
- William Browder, CEO, Hermitage Capital Management
- Further speakers to be confirmed shortly