Legal ways of rescuing from Interpol. A global view of the human fates from the chessboard of international arena of Interpol

Its role is the capability, to enable the police around the world to cooperate for a safer world and public safety. Its task is to coordinate the efforts of a participant-countries in the fight against the crime for mutual benefits. Interpol’s communications network and other services provide highly effective assistance in the field of extradition and mutual legal assistance. Regardless of whether, the request is made under a treaty, under domestic law or under the principle of mutuality (The provisions of the international Covenant on civil and political rights – General Assembly Resolution 2200A (XXI), Universal Declaration of Human Rights, General Assembly Resolution 217A (III), the convention against organized crime are applicable to issues of mutual legal assistance and extradition).

The main task is to coordinate the efforts of individual countries and pursue a unified policy in the area of cooperation on combating crime. Other main tasks include coordinating the international search, as well as combating against human trafficking, organized crime groups, drug smuggling, economic and high-tech crimes, counterfeiting, forgery of securities and child pornography. Recently, much attention has been paid to public safety and the fight against terrorism.

Interpol has «response units», but they are not special forces, but instructors who, if necessary, help police officers from different countries, for example, if there is a very unfavorable crime situation or a large-scale event is being prepared, the security of which needs to be ensured. By itself, Interpol does not conduct investigation, prepare documents and does not announce anyone on the wanted list on its own. It is important, that Interpol ensures the cooperation of law enforcement agencies of the countries of the world, even in cases where there are no diplomatic relations between them. The sense of states participating in an international police organization is the ability to find and detain a citizen of their country, suspected of a crime, almost anywhere in the world and find and transfer to foreign colleagues the criminals wanted by them.

&2. The role of the Interpol in mutual legal assistance and extradition

Mutual legal assistance in criminal justice matters refers to the process by which states request and provide assistance in gathering evidences for use in criminal cases. (Model Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters and Model Treaty on Extradition are available at www.unodc.org/unodc/en/legal-tools/model-treaties-and-laws.html (http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/legal-tools/model-treaties-and-laws.html), also the convention against organized crime can be considered as a model or project of international cooperation in the field of extradition and mutual legal assistance).

Extradition – in jurisprudence (delivery) (from lat. ex -,,from…. Out of,, and tradition -,,handing over,,) – a form of international cooperation of states in the fight against crime, consisting in the arrest and transfer by one state to another, at the request of the latter, persons suspected or accused of committing a crime for trial, or persons already convicted by the judicial authorities of another state for execution. In relation to the US states, this term is also used to refer to the delivery (English «rendition») of the accused from one state to another.

That is, extradition is a formal process in which a state submits a request for the forced return of a person accused or convicted of a crime, in order for that person to come up for trial or serve a sentence in the requesting state.

Thanks to Interpol, the ability of law enforcement agencies of states, searching for cultural and historical values, stolen cars, documents, and missing people has sharply increased. As well as, the capabilities of Interpol were actively used to develop strategic and practical solutions to ensure the safety of major sporting events/the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, the World Cup in Brazil and etc.

Interpol’s participation in international cooperation in the suppression of expectable or committed crimes, including by conducting, if necessary, operational search actions, is carried out within the framework of information assistance. Such assistance is carried out: – through information support of the international search and criminal records; – by providing information support for cooperation in the fight against certain types of crimes. Within the framework of Interpol, such information support is organized by the General Secretariat according to a special methodology and is regulated by: – Rules for the use of information in international police cooperation, adopted by General Assembly Resolution AG-2005-RES-15 (Berlin, 2005); – Adopted in their development by the Resolution of the General Assembly AG-2007-RES-09 (Marrakech, 2007) and supplemented by Resolution AG-2008-RES-14 (St. Petersburg, 2008), rules for the implementation of the procedures for the use of information in international police cooperation. The first of these documents contains general principles and conditions for working with information of operational interest and personal data. The second one describes in detail these principles in conformity with specific types of criminal records of Interpol and international search conducted by them.

On the one hand, having the status of an observer in the work of the UN General Assembly, Interpol takes part in the development of draft international treaties to combat certain types of crimes within this global international organization and thereby assists the international law-making process of states in this field. At the same time, Interpol itself is not a participant of such international treaties, but many of them contain rules imposing obligations on information support for cooperation between states in the fight against crime. On the other hand, having international legal capacity, Interpol independently carries out direct law-making, which is expressed in its contractual practice and in decisions taken by the governing bodies – by the General Assembly and the Executive Committee. Forming the legal basis for cooperation with other international organizations in the field of joint activities, consulting and information exchange, technical cooperation, Interpol concluded: – Cooperation agreements with the Council of Europe (1960), the UN (1997), Organization of American states (2000), Organization of African Unity (2001), International Chamber of Commerce (2001), EUROPOL (2001), SECI Center for combating transborder crime (2002), European Central Bank (2004), International Maritime Organization (2006), UN Office on Drugs (2008), World Anti-Doping Agency (2009) and other international organizations; – Memorandums of Cooperation with the Universal Postal Union (1997), the World Customs Organization (1998), the Investigation Division of the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the United Nations (1998), UNESCO (1999), the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (1999), International Civil Aviation Organization – ICAO (2000), International Council of Museums (2000), International Center for Migration Policy Development – 2 ICMPD (2000), European Drug Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug addiction (2001), UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (2002) and some other international organizations.

Domestic lawmaking is implemented through the development and adoption by the General Assembly of resolutions on certain aspects of international cooperation in the fight against crime and certain types of crime. For example, at the 77th session of the General Assembly in St. Petersburg, in 2008, resolutions were adopted in relation to international cooperation in the fight against terroristic crimes, computer crimes, counterfeit medical products and some other issues. Interpol’s participation in international cooperation in the suppression of expectable or committed crimes, including by conducting, if necessary, operational search actions, is carried out within the framework of information assistance. Such assistance is carried out: by providing information support for international search and criminal records and by providing information support for cooperation in the fight against certain types of crimes.

Within the framework of Interpol, such information support is organized by the General Secretariat according to a special methodology and is regulated by: – Rules for the use of information in international police cooperation, adopted by General Assembly Resolution AG-2005-RES-15 (Berlin, 2005); Adopted in their development by the Resolution of the General Assembly AG-2007-RES-09 (Marrakech, 2007) and supplemented by Resolution AG-2008-RES-14 (St. Petersburg, 2008); Rules for the implementation of the rules for the use of information in international police cooperation.

By statute, Interpol must be a strictly apolitical instrument of cooperation. According to article 3 of the Interpol statute adopted more than sixty years ago and detailed clarifications issued in subsequent years, within the framework of Interpol, countries must cooperate exclusively in the investigation of criminal offenses and not use this structure for political purposes, prohibits the organization from carrying out any interference or activities of political, military, religious or racial nature (article 3 of the statute). The trump of the Interpol is its informational resources, which have been formed over the years. Already by the beginning of the 70s of the last century, on the threshold of the computer era, the Interpol card file contained more than one and a half million cards with the names of criminals. This is a tool for information sharing between law enforcement agencies of different countries. Nowadays, the Interpol General Secretariat in the city of Lyon, has databases containing millions of record entries about criminals, missing peopled, stolen or lost documents, false documents, stolen vehicles, fingerprints, DNA, terrorist organizations and others. The telecommunications system used by Interpol enables law enforcement officers of the member countries of the organization to exchange operational information and receive information of interest to them from foreign colleagues in the shortest possible time. It also serves for remote access to the criminal records of the Interpol General Secretariat in real time. Every year, as a result of checking these records throughout the world, hundreds of dangerous criminals are identified and detained, terrorists using fabricated documents are identified, and stolen and exported cars are found and returned to their rightful owners.

It should be noted, that in the context of the processes of globalization, regional economic and political integration, accompanied by the strengthening and deepening of criminal integration in different regions of the planet, Interpol has concentrated its resources and efforts at the global level and it is only a global police information network, and the international constituent of modern crime requires not only information but also joint actions to suppress, investigate and detect crimes. According to the charter of Interpol, this is not allowed (the article 130—151). Therefore, in order to achieve the abovementioned goals, it was necessary to create regional organizations for cooperation between law enforcement agencies, vested with special competence in international cooperation in the field of criminal justice.

The first such agency was the European police organization – (Europol). It coordinates the intelligence-gathering activities of the police and other competent authorities of the EU member states, the collection, analysis, sharing and exchange of information about crimes and persons involved in their commission. This organization has the right to put questions before member states on the creation of joint investigation groups, include their employees in their composition, as well as to take part in joint investigations and solve other tasks. European Police Office is based in the Hague. The main tasks of the European Police Office are to coordinate the work of national services in the fight against international organized crime and to improve the exchange of information between national police services. Among the main directions of Europol’s work are the fight against terrorism, illegal arms trade, drug trafficking, human trafficking, child pornography and money laundering.

Since February 2020, Europol has been coordinating the work of the police services of the 27 member-states of the European Union.

Europol currently has about 630 employees, of which about 120 are Europol Liaison Officers (ELOs), dispatched to Europol by EU Member-States as representatives of their national law enforcement agencies.

Until today, other organizations have similar capabilities at the regional level, including the European Union agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust). Eurojust is composed of prosecutors, judges or police officers, with equivalent powers from each state of EU. Its task is to improve the efficiency of national authorities when they are dealing with investigations and judicial hearing of cross-border and organized crime. The administrative center is in the city of the Hague in the Netherlands, it was founded by the European Union.

As well as, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) (abbr. «European Anti-Fraud Office», commonly used abbreviation «OLAF», in French «Office de Lutte Anti-Fraude») is based within the European Commission to combat fraud in the execution of programs and European Union policies. The Bureau is an independent organization working with national anti-fraud agencies and corruption. The Bureau was created in 1999 by a decision of the European Commission to replace the Department on the fight against fraud (Unité de coordination de lutte anti-fraude), the competence of which was limited only to the Commission itself. It is located in Brussels in the capital of Belgium.

As well as, American Police Community (Ameripol) – Police Community of the Americas, PCA; This is a continental police international organization created in 2007, the main task of which is the fight against drugs. Ameripol headquarters is located in the city of Bogota in Colombia. Representatives of 18 countries officially created Ameripol on November 14, 2007.

& 3. The history of the creation of the international organization Interpol

In 1914, the princes of Monaco Albert I was robbed. And the thieves, having carried away a box with family jewels from his palace, fled abroad. In the same year, the prince initiated the convening of the International Congress of Criminal Police in order to call cooperation with the police authorities of other countries, which included 24 states. The agenda included the following items: The international search for criminals, the unification of the extradition procedure, the creation of an international data bank for saving criminal information, the basic principles of international police cooperation were also acclaimed. The idea of creating an international commission of criminal police and an organization designed to ensure the interaction of law enforcement officers from different countries in the fight against crime were also, stated at the congress. The First World War hindered the execution of this project. Only in 1923, the Second International Criminal Police Congress was held in Vienna, convened on the initiative of the chief of the Austrian and Vienna police, Johann Schober, and the International Criminal Police Commission was established with headquarters in Vienna. The organization was created to fight international criminals. Schober became its first president.

September 7, 1923 is considered the date of the creation of the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO).

It should be noted, that formally the Commission continued its activities during the Second World War. In the 1930s, specialized departments were created in the structure of Interpol to combat currency counterfeiting, with a world database of criminals. In 1935, the organization began international radio broadcasting. Since 1938, it was headed by the Austrian Otto Steinhäusl. According to the statute, the chairman of the Commission was the head of the police of the host country, which was originally Austria. In the following years, the Interpol was headed by representatives of Nazi Germany. Since 1938, Nazi Germany (since the Anschluss – the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany), the headquarters of Interpol was moved to Berlin, and the presidents of this organization were SS generals Reinhard Heydrich (1940—1942), the second person after Himmler in German police hierarchy which was liquidated in Prague in 1942 by British special forces agents. He was replaced by SS man Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who was punished capitally by the verdict of the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. And the SS man Arthur Nebe was the director from 1938 to 1944, and from 1942 to 1943 the president of Interpol ((In 1945 he was executed for conspiracy against Arnold Hitler) and Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1943—1945).