NGO Freedom House has published a report detailing state repression in 2025. Among the transnational repression documents it identified 11 incidents involved the use of INTERPOL Red Notices or diffusions for politically motivated purposes, including requests linked to Egypt, Kuwait and Turkmenistan. The figure reflects only documented cases and does not capture unpublished diffusions, indirect consequences such as travel restrictions or financial disruptions, or situations in which individuals learn of a notice only after being detained.
The data highlights structural pressures within INTERPOL. The Notices and Diffusion Task Force and the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files operate with limited staffing while processing very high volumes of requests, alongside procedural rules that presume good faith by member states. Several 2025 cases illustrate how these factors operate in practice, including the brief detention of Sudanese opposition politician Yassir Arman in Kenya, the issuance and later revocation of notices against two Spain‑based Salvadoran lawyers, and the delayed invalidation of a Turkmen notice affecting an activist associated with Pussy Riot, a Russian feminist protest group.
Investigative reporting cited in the data indicates that a large majority of Russian requests continued to be approved even after additional safeguards were introduced, with many later removed following challenges. The overall picture suggests that legal reforms exist but remain constrained by capacity, transparency and enforcement limits.
