Interpol General Assembly

• India has proposed to Interpol that the General Assembly of the organization be held in New Delhi in 2022 as part of the nation’s 75th Independence Day celebrations.

The Interpol

• The Interpol (International Criminal Police Organisation) is a 194-member intergovernmental organisation headquartered in Lyon, France.
• It was formed in 1923 as the International Criminal Police Commission, and started calling itself Interpol in 1956.
• India joined the organisation in 1949 (1956 as per wiki), and is one of its oldest members.
• Interpol aims to “help police in all… (its member countries) to work together to make the world a safer place”.
• It enables police forces from different countries to share and access data on crimes and criminals, and offers a “range of technical and operational support”.
• Interpol’s declared global policing goals include countering terrorism, promoting border integrity worldwide, protection of vulnerable communities, providing a secure cyberspace for people and businesses, curbing illicit markets, supporting environment security, and promoting global integrity.

General Assembly

• The General Assembly is Interpol’s supreme governing body, and comprises representatives from all its member countries.
• The General Assembly meets annually for a session lasting approximately four days, to vote on activities and policy.
• Each country is represented by one or more delegates at the Assembly, who are typically chiefs of law enforcement agencies.
• The General Assembly also elects the members of the Interpol Executive Committee, the governing body which “provides guidance and direction in between sessions of the Assembly”.
• Major trends in crime and security threats facing the world are also discussed.

Assembly Resolutions

• The General Assembly’s decisions take the form of Resolutions.
• Each member country has one vote.
• Decisions are made either by a simple or a two-thirds majority, depending on the subject matter.
• General Assembly Resolutions are public documents.
• Interpol recognises that “as the largest global gathering of senior law enforcement officials, the General Assembly also provides an important opportunity for countries to network and share experiences”.

Assembly hosts

• The Interpol’s 88th General Assembly will assemble in Santiago, Chile, later this year.
• The 2018 (87th), 2017 (86th), 2016 (85th), and 2015 (84th) General Assemblies met in Dubai, UAE, Beijing, China, Bali, Indonesia, and Kigali, Rwanda, respectively.
• Kim Jong Yang of South Korea was elected president of Interpol for a two-year term until 2020 by the General Assembly in Dubai.
• The Secretary General of Interpol since 2014 has been Jürgen Stock of Germany.
• He is the organisation’s senior full-time official who oversees the day-to-day running of the Interpol General Secretariat. (Stock met Union Home Minister in New Delhi last week.)