INTERPOL

Unlike most international organisations of its size, the International Criminal Police Organization-INTERPOL (“INTERPOL” or the “Organization”) does not enjoy privileges and immunities (“P&I”) by virtue of a founding treaty. Rather, INTERPOL has worked to find bilateral solutions for its P&I: it has entered into bilateral agreements and other formal arrangements with approximately 20 countries, including those in which INTERPOL has regional bureaus and offices, and temporary bilateral agreements with many other countries. It has done so against a hum of debate as to whether international organisations enjoy immunities under customary international law (on which, see Wood, ‘Do International Organizations Enjoy Immunity Under Customary International Law?’, 10 International Organizations Law Review (2014) 287). But this patchwork system left INTERPOL exposed in the Organization’s other 150-plus member countries, creating significant risks for INTERPOL. As has been frequently repeated in the context of the United Nations, international organisations need P&I to perform their activities and operations with independence. The INTERPOL General Assembly has itself underscored that international law recognises P&I as “the fundamental guarantee of…