Interpol Is Targeting Activists and Refugees. What Fair Trials International Is Doing to Help

Space for civic activity has been shrinking globally. As a result, many of the Open Society Foundations’ partners are being criminalized for promoting democracy and human rights, with some forced into exile. These activists are targeted by the regimes they fled through the abuse of Interpol alerts that label them as criminals in Interpol’s 190 member countries, marking them for extradition back to unsafe environments.

This method of repression gives authoritarian regimes a global reach. People targeted through this system see their reputations destroyed, their travel and work opportunities restricted, and their risk for arrest and detention increased. Fair Trials International, an Open Society grantee, identified 108 new cases of abuse of this system from 2014 to 2015.

How do we protect human rights within the rubric of international cooperative efforts to fight crime? At a recent conversation, Jago Russell discussed Fair Trials International’s work to combat abuse of the Interpol red notice system.

Listen above.