Co-operation Agreement Procedure

In conformity with Article 41 of the Organization's Constitution, agreements concerning relations with other international organizations may be concluded by the ICPO-INTERPOL.

Such agreements must be approved by the General Assembly. Once approved, the President of the Organisation (or the Secretary General by delegation) is authorized to sign them.

However, in accordance with Article 22 of the Organization's Constitution, the General Assembly at its 67th session (Cairo, 1998) and 69th session (Rhodes, 2000) decided to delegate to the Executive Committee the power (conferred on it by Article 41 of the Constitution) to approve co-operation agreements with other international organizations (AGN/67/RES/4, AGN/69/RES/8). In fact, the General Assembly considered it necessary to simplify the procedure and speed up the process of negotiating co-operation agreements initiated by AGN/64/RES/11.

Many draft agreements have therefore been negotiated on the basis of a model co-operation agreement (AGN/67/RAP/7, Appendix 1) and have been submitted to the Executive Committee for approval. The INTERPOL Secretary General was authorized to sign them once approved.

Yet, some agreements do not need to be approved by the General Assembly or the Executive Committee. For instance, Agreements concluded with United Nations subsidiary bodies are not subject to the formal procedure established by Article 41 of the Constitution.

With effect from January 3, 2001, INTERPOL is a party to the 1986 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations or between International Organizations (see Instrument of accession). Agreements concluded by the organization respect the essential conditions of this Convention.