ICPO-Interpol - General Assembly 66th Session - New Delhi - 15th-21st October 1997

BELIEVING that one of Interpol's main goals is to combat international crime and that arresting fugitives with a view to extraditing them to the country where they are wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence, can make an essential contribution to that goal,

CONVINCED that if the extradition process is to have a successful outcome, the fugitives must be provisionally detained while the extradition request is forwarded and studied,

BELIEVING that, through its red notices, Interpol can play a vital role by facilitating and speeding up the pre-extradition process,

RECALLING that red notices are documents intended for both the police and the judicial authorities and can be considered valid requests for provisional arrest, because they are only issued on the basis of valid national arrest warrants,

HAVING TAKEN NOTE OF Report No. 8, submitted by the General Secretariat, on red notices,

The ICPO-Interpol General Assembly, meeting in New Delhi from 15th to 21st October 1997 at its 66th session:

ASKS the Secretary General of the ICPO-Interpol to advance an initiative to urge the United Nations to pursue the elaboration of a Universal Convention on Extradition;

AGREES in principle to the analyses and considerations contained in Report No. 8, provided that:

• Brazil's name is removed from the list of countries which indicated that a red notice has the value of a provisional arrest;
• in the report and on the form, a reference is added to the Convention on legal assistance and legal relationship in civil, family and criminal matters, concluded by the countries of CIS, signed in Minsk in 1993;
• Section 5 of the report, entitled "Meetings of the Internal Working Party on red notices" is deleted and replaced by a statement to the effect that responsibility for continuing the work has been entrusted to the Secretary General;
• the General Secretariat sends the NCBs all the information in its possession on the wanted person;
• the possibility of using Internet to circulate red notices is explored;
• all the nationalities of the wanted person are specified on the form;
• it is stated that Report AGN/66/RAP. No. 8 may not be distributed without the present amended resolution;

ASKS the General Secretariat to follow the guidelines contained in the Report on red notices;

RECOMMENDS that the NCBs do likewise, in so far as the competent national authorities allow them to do so.