What is an Interpol Red Notice?
An Interpol Red Notice asks law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar action. INTERPOL issues it at the request of a member country, on the basis of a national warrant. It is not an international arrest warrant.
Red Notices are the best known of INTERPOL's colour-coded notices. They are published to all member countries and each country decides for itself what legal weight to give one. INTERPOL reviews notices against its Constitution and its Rules on the Processing of Data and cancels those that fall outside them. The most persistent error in compliance is reading a Red Notice as proof of guilt: it records an accusation and a request, and notices are sometimes misused for political ends, which is why the compliance review mechanism exists at all.
What this workflow covers
SCOPE- Confirm a candidate against date of birth, nationality and the published photograph before escalating.
- Record the charge and the issuing country, and record no assumption of guilt.
- Only extracts the requesting country agrees to publish appear on interpol.int, so a public no-match does not mean no notice exists.
- A Red Notice creates no asset freeze and no prohibition on dealing.
Compliance glossary
TERMS- Notice
- A request for international cooperation or alert published by INTERPOL and sent to all member countries.
- Commission for the Control of INTERPOL's Files
- The independent body that handles requests for access to, correction of, or deletion of data held in INTERPOL's files.
Authoritative references
SOURCES- 01Red Notices
INTERPOL
- 02Notices — Compliance and review
INTERPOL
Frequently asked questions
Q&A- Is a Red Notice an arrest warrant?
- No. It is a request to locate and provisionally arrest pending extradition or a similar action, made on the basis of a national warrant or judicial decision. Whether it leads to an arrest is decided by each country under its own law.
- Can a Red Notice be challenged or removed?
- Yes. INTERPOL's Notices and Diffusions Task Force reviews notices for conformity with its rules, and an individual may apply to the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL's Files. Notices assessed as non-compliant are cancelled.
- How much of the Red Notice data is public?
- Only a minority, because publication requires the requesting country's agreement. Screening the public extract evidences a check performed; describing it as full Interpol coverage does not survive scrutiny.
- Our client has a Red Notice. Do we have to exit?
- Not automatically. It is a serious risk indicator, not a legal prohibition. The proportionate response is escalation, identity verification, enhanced due diligence and a documented decision taken at the right level of management.