INTERPOL Foundation for a Safer World

The Foundation supports INTERPOL and other institutions by building strategic global partnerships.

The INTERPOL Foundation for a Safer World promotes a more secure, open world where economies allow citizens and companies to flourish, and where people can live and travel without the threat of crimes.

Its mission is to engage governments and companies to support INTERPOL’s work in building a safer world. The Foundation works by raising awareness, creating and developing partnerships and conducting fundraising campaigns.

At the heart of its work are four critical issues currently shaping the global security landscape: terrorism, organized crime, police capacity and fragile states.

Legal and leadership

The INTERPOL Foundation for a Safer World is a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Geneva. H.E. Elias Murr, former Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior and Minister of Defence of Lebanon, is the President of the Board of Trustees, and HSH Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco, is the President of the Honorary Board.  

The Foundation was established in October 2013 in accordance with Articles 80 et seq. of the Swiss Civil Code, registered with the Register of Companies of the canton of Geneva, acting on the basis of its statutes.

Cooperation with INTERPOL

INTERPOL and the INTERPOL Foundation for a Safer World collaborate through a cooperation agreement which entered into force in March 2014. This establishes the legal framework of collaboration for the Foundation to support INTERPOL in implementing its global activities to assist its member countries.

Since May 2016, the Foundation has been supporting seven key INTERPOL initiatives by donating EUR 50 million over a period of five years, as part of a contribution agreement between the Foundation and the Government of the United Arab Emirates.

The INTERPOL projects currently funded by the Foundation are:

Global Counter-Terrorism Initiative
This initiative assists countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa to tackle transnational terrorist activities by identifying terrorist groups and facilitators, reducing their cross-border mobility and use of social media platforms, as well as disrupting financial streams and trafficking of weapons related to terrorist activities.

Illicit drug trafficking
Project AMEAP (Africa Middle East Asia Pacific) helps national authorities identify security threats and confront organized crime groups involved in illicit drug trafficking in these regions through a cross-border, operational approach coordinated by INTERPOL.

Cybercrime information sharing
INTERPOL is creating a technology platform to increase national capacities to obtain, analyze and disseminate actionable cyber intelligence. This will help countries working on multi-stakeholder task forces to effectively combat cybercrimes and cyber-enabled crimes.

Protecting vulnerable communities
This project aims to protect vulnerable communities by identifying and disrupting criminal networks engaged in migrant smuggling, human trafficking and online child sexual exploitation. It involves capacity building activities and regional plans to support transnational operations. It also consolidates global networks of experts to promote information sharing.

Protecting cultural heritage
The project is upgrading INTERPOL’s Stolen Works of Art Database and developing a mobile application to allow access to the database globally, at any time. The project also delivers training courses to users about data entry, conducting searches, and generating and retrieving statistics.

Reducing vehicle crime
This initiative will provide innovative tools to facilitate vehicle crime investigations especially in areas where routine checks are usually not possible. By cooperating with all stakeholders in vehicle crime, this will increase the recovery rate of stolen assets and limit the economic losses caused by criminal activities.

Illicit goods and pharmaceuticals
This supports member countries to dismantle the organized crime networks behind the manufacture, distribution and sale of illegal goods, pharmaceuticals and medical products.  INTERPOL carries out operations in close cooperation with skilled multi-agency law enforcement taskforces on a regional basis.