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China is abusing the Interpol Red Notice system to silence dissent and opposition all over the world. How can this be stopped?

IHR-Advisors at the House of Lords on 29 March 2023

Repressive regimes are using the Interpol Red Notice system to expand their repression beyond their national borders. China is one of the states that most blatantly abuses this system to silence dissent and opposition against the government anywhere in the world. Why has this been allowed to happen and what can be done to reign in this transnational repression? This event at the UK House of Lords will hear from an expert panel of speakers.

SPEAKERS

Baroness Helena Kennedy KC (Chair)

A leading barrister and expert in human rights law, civil liberties and constitutional issues, Baroness Kennedy KC is a member of the House of Lords and chair of Justice, the British arm of the International Commission of Jurists. In 2020, she co-founded the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, an international cross-party alliance of parliamentarians focused on relations with the People’s Republic of China. In 2021, China imposed sanctions on Baroness Kennedy KC and four other UK parliamentarian members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China for spreading “lies and disinformation” about the country.

https://www.helenakennedy.co.uk/

Bill Browder

Browder was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005 when he was declared “a threat to national security” for exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies. In 2009 Browder’s Russian lawyer and anti-corruption whistle blower, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed in a Moscow pretrial detention centre. Ever since, Browder has campaigned for targeted sanctions on human rights abusers and corrupt officials. In 2012 the US passed the Sergei Magnitsky Accountability Act and the UK, the Baltic states, the European Union and Australia have since passed their own versions of the Magnitsky Act.

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Ted Bromund

Senior Research Fellow at the Margaret Thatcher for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank based in Washington, DC. Bromund writes on Anglo-American relations, US and British relations with Europe and the European Union, US-Canadian relations, America’s leadership role in the world, and international organisations and treaties.

https://www.heritage.org/staff/ted-r-bromund

Nyrola Elimä

Nyrola is an independent journalist and researcher with extensive expertise in human rights in China. She is currently working with Dr David Tobin of the University of Sheffield on the FCDO-funded project, “Documenting the scale and impact of transnational repression in the Uyghur diaspora.” They have interviewed more than 50 Uyghurs about their personal experiences of transnational repression in the UK, Turkey, and Thailand. Nyrola has written about Uyghur human rights issues for the New Yorker and the Spectator, and contributed to a Pulitzer Prize-winning project for BuzzFeed News. Her powerful reporting and research have also earned her an Emmy nomination and a place on the BBC News Award shortlist.

https://twitter.com/nyrola

Ben Keith

UK barrister specialising in International Criminal law and International Human Rights law. He is an expert on Interpol and the red notice system and subsequent extradition and asylum proceeding. He advises clients based all around the world on these issues. He is a co-author of the influential report “Undue Influence: The UAE and Interpol”.

https://www.5sah.co.uk/barristers/ben-keith

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About the Authors

Ben Keith Barrister

Ben Keith is a co-founder of IHR Advisors and an internationally recognised lawyer specialising in INTERPOL Red Notice challenges, extradition, international human rights law and asylum. He is the co-author of Interpol, Law and Practice (Sweet & Maxwell, 2026). He is co-editor of Red Notice Monitor, the leading public resource on INTERPOL Red Notice abuse and the practice of INTERPOL’s Commission for the Control of Files.

Ben represents clients across every region in INTERPOL Red Notice and Diffusion challenges before the Commission for the Control of Files. He has secured the deletion of Notices issued by states including Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Belarus, Iran and Venezuela, in cases involving journalists, opposition political figures, refugees, human rights defenders and business figures targeted in commercial and political disputes. He is the author of the INTERPOL chapter in The Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations (Global Investigations Review, 2026).

Ben has appeared as counsel before the European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber, the UK Supreme Court, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the UN Committee Against Torture. He is a member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court and the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.

He regularly acts for politically exposed persons, journalists, human rights defenders and high net worth individuals facing extradition, INTERPOL Notices and other instruments of transnational repression. He provides legal commentary to national and international media including the Guardian, The Times, the Financial Times, The Telegraph, the BBC, Sky News, CNN, CBS 60 Minutes, The Economist, Politico and Al Jazeera.

Ben is ranked Star Individual in Chambers and Partners and a leading individual in The Legal 500 for extradition. He practises from 5 St Andrew’s Hill in London.

View Ben Keith's profile
Rhys Davies Barrister

Rhys Davies is a co-founder of IHR Advisors and an internationally recognised lawyer specialising in INTERPOL Red Notice challenges, international criminal law and international human rights law. He is the co-author of Interpol, Law and Practice (Sweet & Maxwell, 2026). He is co-editor of Red Notice Monitor, the leading public resource on INTERPOL Red Notice abuse and the practice of INTERPOL’s Commission for the Control of Files.

Rhys co-authored the report Undue Influence: the UAE and INTERPOL with Sir David Calvert-Smith, examining the systemic misuse of INTERPOL’s Notice and Diffusion systems by the United Arab Emirates and the implications for INTERPOL’s governance. He represents clients in INTERPOL Red Notice challenges before the Commission for the Control of Files, with particular focus on cases involving Middle Eastern and Central Asian states, and on the position of refugees, journalists and political dissidents targeted through INTERPOL by their states of origin.

Rhys has significant experience of in-country legal advice and assistance, most recently in the West Bank, and a specific interest in the Middle East. He is a member of the List of Counsel for the International Criminal Court, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. He regularly speaks at, and chairs, events at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and at the House of Commons on matters of international law.

Rhys is the author of numerous articles on INTERPOL Red Notice practice and on justice in the Middle East, and is in demand as a commentator on international human rights. He provides legal commentary to national and international media including The Times, the Guardian, the Independent, the Financial Times, CBS 60 Minutes, Sky News, City AM and Al Jazeera.

Rhys is recommended as a leading individual in The Legal 500. He practises from Temple Garden Chambers in London and The Hague.

View Rhys Davies's profile