Finding out whether you are listed — and getting it deleted

The CCF is the body that supervises INTERPOL’s data. Its Requests Chamber decides requests by individuals for access to their data, and for its deletion or correction.

The procedure is in writing. There is no hearing. A deletion request is to be decided within nine months of admissibility, and a decision that the data does not comply with INTERPOL’s rules binds INTERPOL’s General Secretariat.

Two further points should be noted. Where arrest or removal is imminent, the Commission may be asked to order provisional measures suspending use of the data while the request is decided. And deletion binds INTERPOL only — a country that has copied the alert into its own systems retains its copy, which must be addressed separately.

A Red Notice must comply with INTERPOL’s constitution and its Rules on the Processing of Data. A notice may be deleted on grounds including:

• Article 3 of the constitution — the case is of a predominantly political, military, religious or racial character. The test is one of predominance, weighing the ordinary-law elements of the case against the political elements.
• Article 2 — respect for human rights, including fair-trial concerns in the requesting country and conditions of detention.
• Conviction in absentia, where one had no real opportunity to be heard.
• Insufficient or unreliable judicial data — the request does not disclose an intelligible case against the person named.
• The seriousness threshold — for prosecution, the offence must carry a maximum of at least two years’ imprisonment; for a sentence already imposed, at least six months must remain to be served.
• The exclusion of offences arising from administrative regulation, or from private or family disputes, unless connected to serious or organised crime.

An example is a 2025 decision published by the CCF in anonymised excerpt form. This was not a case in which we acted; the summary below is of the CCF’s published decision.

The applicant was the subject of a Red Notice for tax evasion and illegal entrepreneurship, based on an arrest warrant issued in the requesting country, where he had been a director of a foreign construction company’s branch. He first learned of the proceedings when he was refused entry to another country. He applied to the CCF for deletion, contending that there was a lack of due process, that the case was of an administrative nature, and that there were irregularities in the proceedings.

He explained that he was not responsible for the company’s tax filings, that he acted on the instructions of his superiors, and that he received nothing beyond his salary. The Commission recalled that Red Notices may not be published for offences originating from a violation of laws or regulations of an administrative nature, and found that the material provided did not demonstrate the applicant’s involvement in a criminal act, criminal intent or personal benefit. It decided that the data did not comply with INTERPOL’s rules, and ordered its deletion from INTERPOL’s files.