What is the Dialogue?
The Dialogue is a unique process that gathers all the world’s regional policing organizations and other major intergovernmental security stakeholders under INTERPOL’s global umbrella, to maintain regular high-level discussions about coordinating our efforts against global threats.
This high-level process was established in 2016 out of INTERPOL’s strong belief in the importance of adopting a comprehensive and coordinated global approach when addressing cross-continental security threats.
It strives to improve mutual cooperation, enhance exchange of information and best practices, and minimize duplication between key international and regional law enforcement stakeholders.
Who participates?
The Dialogue includes high-level delegates from the following organizations: AFRIPOL, AMERIPOL, ASEANAPOL, the Arab Interior Ministers Council, the Economic Cooperation Organization, EUROPOL, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency – Frontex, and the Gulf Cooperation Council-POL, as well as INTERPOL. There are two observer organizations: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and UNODC.
Why is the Dialogue needed?
Our collective success in tackling global crime threats depends on aligning our strategies, and coordinating our operational efforts together with all regional policing and border management organizations. This ensures complementarity and avoids duplication of efforts or missed opportunities.
It is important to remove obstacles to information sharing between the organizations, and to ensure that this information is accessible to police and customs officers at the border frontlines, in order to be able to intercept successfully the movement of terrorists and criminals.
October 2021 Dialogue: Outcome declaration highlights
2021 Joint Communique highlights:
- The cybercrime as a serious security and criminal threats taking advantage of the increased reliance on the digital environment. With the escalation of cybercrime worldwide, enhanced coordination of timely transnational law enforcement responses on a national, regional and global scale fundamental in reducing the impact of cybercrime.
- Combatting cybercrime effectively requires both strategic and operational engagement.
- The Dialogue member entities to continue strengthening of the collaboration between regional organizations and INTERPOL to better serve their common member countries through ensuring enhanced coordination and more effective operations against cybercrime actors.
- Streamlining of the working groups in a new format: Working Group on Strategic Aspects of Global Policing Architecture and Working Group on Operational Aspects of Global Policing Architecture, both of them covering all four pillars of the Global Policing Architecture.
May 2020 Dialogue: Outcome declaration highlights
- The effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the global security landscape manifested by the rise of new criminal threats, in particular cyber and cyber-enabled crimes, but also organized criminal and terrorist activities across the different regions of the world and primarily with a cross-border dimension;
- Importance of multilateral law enforcement cooperation in times of emergency, given the inherent cross-border nature of criminal threats arising from the pandemic and related containment measures;
- The platform and mechanisms of the Dialogue process to be utilized to enhance the coordinated efforts to facilitate the exchange of information, views and best practices in regards to:
- Identified and projected COVID-19 related threats within their respective regions;
- Strategic and operational challenges posed by COVID-19, and the mitigation measures undertaken to address the crisis and assist member countries;
- Opportunities for operational and strategic collaboration among them in a post-COVID-19 world.
June 2019 Dialogue: Outcome declaration highlights
- The Dialogue member entities to further align counter-terrorism, organized crime and border security strategies, and to coordinate their operational endeavours in countering the cross-continental movement of foreign-terrorist fighters and drugs trafficking, as well as targeting criminal financing and assets as a common enabler of both terrorist and organized groups;
- Focus on two areas of cooperation:
- Design a continual and flexible mechanism to share strategic plans and align operational actions;
- Streamline the access to operational information to frontline police across regions either by relying on INTERPOL’s I-24/7 network as a preferred solution for linking regional police players, in accordance with their respective governance frameworks, or through interoperable systems;
- Two permanent working-level working groups to be established:
- Strategic Coordination: enhancing multilateral consultations and exchanging best practices amongst the Dialogue member entities in regards to their strategic planning processes, evolving strategic priorities, and subsequent activities cycles;
- Streamlined frontline access to information: providing mutual support to the use of all frontline policing capabilities offered by the Dialogue member entities and ensuring stronger cooperation between law enforcement and immigration authorities on the national, regional and global level.
May 2017 Dialogue: Outcome declaration highlights
- Law enforcement agencies to play a prominent role coordinated and discharged through neutral channels, devoid of political influence;
- Fundamental need to share information among law enforcement agencies within strict compliance of the legal framework to which they are subject;
- Advocate to the governing bodies of represented organizations the strengthening of joint coordination platforms among multilateral police bodies, organizations, or institutions;
- Focus the dialogue’s process on four areas of cooperation:
- i. Designing a global platform to share plans and align operational action within respective mandates and in compliance with policy cycles and governance bodies;
- ii. Recommending to national authorities either the creation of a single node for international police cooperation (preferred) or the adoption of standard operating procedures allowing for better operational integration (intermediate measure);
- iii. Streamlining the access to operational information by frontline police by relying on INTERPOL I-24/7 network;
- iv. Exploring the development of a global policing architecture and standards focused on shared priority challenges of an operational and technical nature.
March 2016 Dialogue: Outcome declaration highlights
- Key role of cross-border policing and information exchange both at the intra-regional and inter-regional level in addressing current and impending security threats;
- Need for greater mutual cooperation, exchange of best practices and minimizing duplication between international and regional police stakeholders;
- Common principles to be explored to set up a homogenous framework for the enhancement of mutual trust and effective cooperation among participating organizations;
- Common efforts to identify existing strengths and outstanding gaps in current multilateral policing architecture;
- INTERPOL to act as a central repository of strategic threat assessments for circulation as allowed by their classification.
