INTERPOL to introduce new international notice to assist UN

BERLIN – INTERPOL's 74th General Assembly has adopted a number of measures aimed at assisting the United Nations in its efforts to combat terrorism and the financing of terrorist activity.

INTERPOL will create a new international Notice, for global distribution at the request of the United Nations, informing police in member countries that certain individuals are the target of UN anti-terrorism sanctions and therefore subject to the freezing of assets, arms embargo and travel ban.

The new INTERPOL notice will be used alongside the range of existing INTERPOL notices, the best known of which is the Red Notice or international wanted persons notice. The General Assembly also agreed that, where appropriate, information that a wanted individual is also subject to UN anti-terrorism sanctions be included in standard INTERPOL notices.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1617, unanimously adopted on 29 July 2005, called on the UN Secretary General to work with INTERPOL to develop effective tools to assist a United Nations Security Council Al-Qaeda/Taliban committee to carry out its mandate regarding freezing of assets, a ban on travel and weapons embargo aimed at groups and individuals associated with Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Delegates to the INTERPOL General Assembly, meeting this year in Berlin, also endorsed a proposal to take steps required to allow temporary access to the INTERPOL global communications network and criminal databases for international police working with the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

Part of the UNMIL mandate is for its police officers to provide security at key government installations and to protect UN personnel as well as to assist the transitional government of Liberia to re-establish a functioning police service.

INTERPOL has a long history of co-operation with the UN and UN-related entities. Most recently, INTERPOL officers were assigned to assist the United Nations investigation in Beirut into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

In November 2004, INTERPOL appointed its first ever Special Representative to the United Nations headquarters in New York. Dr Ulrich Kersten was assigned to help enhance co-operation and communication between the organizations.

'INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald Noble and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wish to further develop the relationship between our organizations, and the adoption of these important resolutions by delegates to the General Assembly is further evidence of the commitment to do this,' Dr Kersten said.

INTERPOL President Jackie Selebi said: 'Such co-operation between INTERPOL and other international entities gives the world's police another weapon in the fight against terrorism and other cross-border criminality around the world.'

INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organization, with 184 member countries, which each maintain an INTERPOL National Central Bureau staffed by members of national police. At INTERPOL’s General Secretariat in Lyon, France, police from more than 70 countries work side-by-side in any of the organization’s four official languages, Arabic, English, French and Spanish.