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On 29 October 2026, Ben Keith spoke at The Daily Life of International Law, a joint workshop of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) and the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS). His paper, “Living with a Red Notice: transnational repression and the hidden daily life of international law”, drew on the firm’s INTERPOL practice to show how a Red Notice reaches into a person’s life long before any court considers it. Questions followed from Professor Jean-Pierre Gauci and Gerard Conway.
A Red Notice is a request circulated through INTERPOL asking police in other member states to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition. Ben called it “one of the few international law mechanisms that acts almost immediately in criminal justice.”
Arrest is rarely the only consequence. “Just the report of a Red Notice can mean that you’re debanked, fired or suspended from your job, and immigration authorities can refuse visas, nationality or status in a particular jurisdiction.” He described Chinese nationals in Australia whose status was left unconfirmed, and who were told to negotiate with Beijing for the notice’s removal. Where a notice rests on false reporting by a state official, he said, that is “a ludicrous position to take.”
Notices are easy to obtain. A requesting state needs little more than a senior police officer with access to its National Central Bureau, and the result is “an abusive Red Notice, which is very difficult to remove.” Ben gave the example of a client pursued by Azerbaijan after a corporate deal went wrong. A criminal case was opened to put pressure on the other side, and the notice followed. It was deleted after an application to Lyon.
INTERPOL channels are also used for transnational repression. Ben explained that, although the UK does not act on Chinese Red Notices, China uses INTERPOL to locate people abroad even where no extradition treaty exists, and then presses them to return. “That persuasion usually involves threats to their families, or leverage against their families.”
Notices for treason or terrorism are easy to spot as political. The hardest are framed as tax fraud, non-payment or a regulatory offence. “The duller the offence, the more difficult they are to defend against.”
Gerard Conway asked whether any meaningful judicial review exists. The Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files (CCF) in Lyon tests each notice against INTERPOL’s rules: whether it is of a predominantly political or military character, whether it complies with international human rights standards, and whether the offence is generally recognised as a crime. Unpaid dowry, child maintenance and defamation are crimes in some states and not in most.
The CCF’s own deadlines are four months for a request for access and nine for deletion. Some cases, Ben said, run two or three years. Court review is harder still: INTERPOL has immunity in France, and no challenge to it has yet succeeded.
Professor Gauci asked what the enforcing state owes. In the UK, notices arrive at the National Central Bureau in Manchester, where refugee status, torture risk and transnational repression can be weighed before anyone acts. Other states arrest first. “The Red Notice is merely the communication; what happens at either end requires the different states to [apply] their differing international and domestic obligations.”
A pre-emptive request, made to INTERPOL before a notice is issued, has no basis in INTERPOL’s Rules on the Processing of Data. INTERPOL tends to consider one anyway, and it has protected a number of human rights defenders. Whether that will continue is under debate.
Ben closed on reform. The Joint Committee on Human Rights proposed changes in its 2025 report on transnational repression, but nothing moves until the states that fund INTERPOL take control of it. Until they do, a Red Notice will keep doing its work at the border, the bank and the employer.
We act for people facing Red Notices and Diffusions: CCF applications for access and deletion, pre-emptive requests where a notice is threatened, and the extradition and immigration proceedings that follow. Our international law practice handles the transnational repression and UN work alongside it.
Our thanks to BIICL and the Society of Legal Scholars for hosting, and to Professor Gauci and Gerard Conway for their questions.
If you or a client are affected by a Red Notice, contact us in confidence.
If you would like to speak with us about our areas of practice or anything else please contact us via the form linked below.
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