CAPE TOWN, South Africa – The INTERPOL Strategic Advisory Panel (ISAP) has proposed that INTERPOL and the United Nations stage a joint crisis response simulation exercise to develop greater international co-ordination for global disasters.

ISAP, which was formed in June 2005 to help INTERPOL address the increasing threat of global terrorism, transnational crime and advances in technologically sophisticated crime, unanimously endorsed the organization of a table-top exercise with the UN which would bring together senior officials from international bodies and non-governmental organizations.

The exercise, which could be staged in 2006, would be the first step in creating a professional, structured and reliable method for the rapid international deployment of resources to crises such as terrorist attacks or natural disasters.

'We have all witnessed the tragedies, both natural and deliberate, in recent years, all of which have needed a fast, effective reaction from a range of agencies, including police, humanitarian and health,' said INTERPOL President Jackie Selebi. 'This proposal to hold a joint INTERPOL and UN crisis response simulation will help to ensure that in the future the appropriate help is given to those who need it most, when they need it most.'

Following the Asian tsunami in December 2004, INTERPOL launched its biggest-ever operational response to help co-ordinate international disaster victim identification efforts and to provide logistical and communications support to affected authorities.

Members of ISAP also called on President Selebi to convene a global meeting of police from INTERPOL's member countries to reinforce the organization's opposition to torture and make clear its respect for the human dignity of all.

'We have agreed on a series of far-reaching resolutions which we believe will have a major impact on policing throughout the world and which could only be implemented by INTERPOL due to its unique role in international law enforcement,' said ISAP Chairman and former Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police Service, Lord John Stevens.

'President Selebi, who has already made a significant contribution in the area of human rights, is the ideal person to bring together police services from around the world for this purpose.'

The panel also recommended that INTERPOL support and facilitate the training and ongoing education of police in its member countries through academies, universities and research institutions, and encourage ongoing educational efforts and co-operative agreements between National Central Bureaus (NCBs) and the relevant judicial powers in member countries.

It was also agreed that to further enhance international police co-operation, each INTERPOL member country should strengthen its NCBs and strive to second a police officer to either the General Secretariat in Lyon, France, or to one of INTERPOL's regional bureaus.

'INTERPOL's global communications system already ensures that our National Central Bureaus receive vital police information at the touch of a button,' said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble. 'By strengthening our NCBs and having officers from each of our 184 member countries physically present at the General Secretariat or in a regional bureau, the successes we have already achieved would be magnified enormously and of great benefit to the global law enforcement community.'

The next ISAP meeting will be held in Lyon in February 2006, when the General Secretariat will report back on the progress made in relation to the recommendations.

ISAP recommendations from Cape Town meeting
24-25 November 2005

The INTERPOL Strategic Advisory Panel recommends that:

1. Police Chiefs have obligations and responsibilities beyond their borders to enhance and expand international police co-operation.
   
   
2. INTERPOL’s President should convene a global meeting to reinforce INTERPOL member countries’ police forces’ opposition to torture and to make clear the respect for the human dignity of all.
   
3. International police co-operation would be enhanced by strengthening INTERPOL’s National Central Bureaus and by each INTERPOL member country seconding at least one police officer to either a Sub-Regional Bureau or the INTERPOL General Secretariat in Lyon, France. As a matter of principle, each member country should strive to second a police officer to INTERPOL.
   
   
4. INTERPOL needs to play an important role in supporting and facilitating the training and ongoing education of police in its member countries, including through the establishment and maintenance of strong ties with police academies, universities and research institutions.
   
   
5. Effective international police co-operation requires a sound working relationship between INTERPOL and the relevant judicial powers in INTERPOL member countries, as well as a mutual understanding of their respective roles. Therefore, ongoing educational efforts and co-operative agreements between INTERPOL National Central Bureaus and the relevant judicial powers in INTERPOL member countries should be encouraged.
   
   
6. INTERPOL should organize a joint UN-INTERPOL table top exercise for greater co-ordination of crisis response.

The INTERPOL Strategic Advisory Panel members are:

Former Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police Service Lord John Stevens (Chairman), former Commissioners of Police Franco Montealegre Callejas (Nicaragua), Francis Forbes (Jamaica), also former President of the Association of Caribbean Chiefs of Police, and Tsang Yam Pui (Hong Kong), UN Under Secretary General for Safety and Security Sir David Veness, Mrs Abimbola Jolaade Ojomo, former Deputy Inspector General of the Nigeria Police Force and INTERPOL Executive Committee Delegate for Africa (1999-2002), President of the Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAASS) Dr Abdulaziz Sagr Al-Ghamdi, Judge Baltazar Garzon del Real of the Spanish National Court, Jacques Franquet, Préfet and former Directeur Central de la Police Judiciaire (DCPJ), and Gerry W. Lynch, President Emeritus of John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.