Causes
INTERPOL abuse
INTERPOL is the world's largest international criminal police organization. By number of member countries, it surpasses even the United Nations. INTERPOL's 196 member countries have entrusted it with operating a global database of government requests for international police cooperation. The majority of such requests call for the detention of individuals for the purpose of their extradition to stand a criminal trial. Unfortunately, many government requests disseminated via INTERPOL's channels are based on politically motivated or otherwise unlawful and corrupt prosecutions. To maintain its immunity from national courts and international tribunals, INTERPOL has established a redress mechanism for the victims of government abuse of its resources. The redress mechanism, however, fails to provide the victims with many fundamental rights and safeguards necessary to guarantee them due process. For years, these loopholes have allowed non-democratic regimes to misuse INTERPOL's resources with impunity and the abuse to thrive, keeping the victims in constant fear for their life and freedom. Not only INTERPOL's regulations on the international level but also its member countries' national laws have failed to address the problem. As a result, more and more democratic governments are turning into unwitting accomplices of oppressive and autocratic regimes that abuse INTERPOL's channels for political and other unlawful purposes. We consider it our goal to convince INTERPOL and its member countries to adopt laws and regulations and to carry out the reforms necessary to effectively fight INTERPOL abuse.
International extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties
International extradition treaties are often applied with blatant disregard for the individual rights secured in them. Extradition requests are frequently approved for political reasons instead of their merits and the rule of law, to maintain a good relationship with the requesting state. Often, extradition treaties are drafted so that they prioritize the expediency and cost-effectiveness of extradition proceedings for the benefit of governments at the expense of fundamental rights of individuals targeted by extradition requests. Even more often, instead of placing individuals in extradition proceedings, governments skip them altogether and resort to removal proceedings. The latter, generally, lack due process, provide incomparably fewer rights and guarantees and often result in deportations to the countries seeking to persecute the targeted individuals (the so-called "backdoor extraditions"). In many instances, removals are carried out without individuals being allowed to consult an attorney and without any hearing whatsoever. Like extradition treaties, mutual legal assistance treaties are routinely used by non-democratic regimes against political opponents and other individuals facing trumped-up criminal charges to compel testimony, conduct searches and seizures, freeze and confiscate assets, obtain personal and other information and otherwise persecute and harass them abroad. As a rule, mutual legal assistance treaties provide individuals with virtually no rights or safeguards and are generally available as a means to collect and access evidence for governments only. As a result, the accused who seek to obtain or access evidence are left with very few, if any, options. As with abusive government requests disseminated via INTERPOL's channels, democratic regimes that are known for their respect for the rule of law often rush to execute their non-democratic counterparts' requests for extradition or mutual legal assistance and soon find themselves dragged into politically motivated and corrupt prosecutions.
