"The International Criminal Police Commission, meeting at its General
Assembly in LISBON, from June 11th to 15th 1951,
Having taken cognizance of the communication submitted by its President, Mr.
F.E. LOUWAGE, as also the report submitted by the specialised sub-committee
presided over by Professor LUTHI,
1°) RECOMMENDS to its members and to the Heads of the National Central
Bureaux to see that no request for information, notice of person wanted and
above all no request for provisional arrest for crimes of a predominant political,
racial or religious character, is ever sent to the International Bureau or
to the National Bureaux, even if, in the requesting Country, the facts amount
to an offence against the ordinary law;
2°) DECIDES, in view of respecting as much as possible the prescriptions
of article 1 of the Statutes, that, in case of doubt with regard to the political,
racial or religious character of a request, the Chief of the International
Bureau, in agreement with the Secretary General of the I.C.P.C., be authorised
to suspend the circulation of any request for information or wanted notice
emanating from a National Central Bureau or any other requesting police authority
in order to ask for such precisions as are necessary to enlighten him with
regard to the exact nature of the acts and the true situation of the delinquents;
3°) RECOMMENDS, moreover, to the Members and Chiefs of the National Central
Bureaux also to take care, as far as possible, that the requests which reach
them from foreign police authorities do not appear to violate the principles
set forth in 1° and 2° of the present resolution and to notify immediately,
if necessary, the International Bureau in PARIS, who will inform the Secretary
General. The President will be informed by the Secretary General of the acts
referred to in paragraphs 2°) and 3°) of the present Resolution.
4°) DECIDES, moreover, that the police authorities who address either
to the Chief of the International Bureau, for circulation to the National
Central Bureaux, or to a foreign National Bureau, requests for information
or enquiries, have the entire responsibility, which would result from the
political, racial or religious character of the affair to which the request
refers."
Unanimously adopted.
