Silver Notices and Diffusions Can Be Challenged During Their Pilot Phase, INTERPOL Says

On January 10, 2025, INTERPOL published its first-ever Silver Notice as part of its Silver Notices and Silver Diffusions pilot program. At the time, INTERPOL did not publish any rules that would regulate these new notices and diffusions. A week later, INTERPOL disclosed what it called “Legal Framework Governing the 2025 Silver Notice / Silver Diffusion Pilot.” There is no indication that the Legal Framework has been adopted by the INTERPOL General Assembly, unlike INTERPOL’s Rules on the Processing of Data (RPD) which provide for specific regulatory framework for other types of notices and diffusions. The RPD do not even mention Silver Notices or Silver Diffusions. It is, therefore, fair to call the Legal Framework a “draft” or “temporary rules.” After all, in the title of the document, INTERPOL indicates that it is designed for the pilot phase which speaks to its potentially temporary nature.

According to the Legal Framework, during their pilot phase, Silver Notices and Silver Diffusions will be governed by INTERPOL’s Constitution, the RPD, “specific rules governing [their] publication / circulation,” and “rules governing the work of the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files . . . , notably the INTERPOL Constitution and the [Commission’s] Statute, which shall apply to Silver Notices / Silver Diffusions in a manner similar to all other Notices and Diffusions.” The part of the Legal Framework containing the rules that INTERPOL has designed specifically for the publication of Silver Notices and Silver Diffusions deserves special attention. I will discuss it in another publication. In today’s post, I want to concentrate on whether Silver Notices and Silver Diffusions can be challenged during their pilot phase.

As mentioned above, in the Legal Framework, INTERPOL confirms that the RPD apply to Silver Notices and Silver Diffusions even though they are not mentioned in the RPD. Moreover, the Organization has emphasized the application of certain provisions to Silver Notices and Silver Diffusions during the pilot phase. One such provision is individual access to the Organization’s files. Article 18 of the RPD provides that “[a]ny person or entity shall be entitled to submit directly to the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files a request for access to . . . data processed in the INTERPOL Information System concerning that person or entity.” This means that individuals who believe that they are targeted by Silver Notices or Silver Diffusions during the pilot phase have the right to file a request for access, seeking information on whether there is any such notice or diffusion against them and, if yes, their contents.

Another crucial right that the subjects of other types of government requests processed via INTERPOL’s channels have and that the Organization, according to the Legal Framework, must not deny individuals targeted by Silver Notices and Silver Diffusions, is the right to challenge them before the Commission. Going back to Article 18 of the RPD, it provides that “[a]ny person or entity shall be entitled to submit directly to the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files a request for . . . correction and/or deletion of data processed in the INTERPOL Information System concerning that person or entity.” Additionally, as mentioned above, according to the Legal Framework, Silver Notices and Silver Diffusions are subject to the “[r]ules governing the work of the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files (CCF), . . . which shall apply to Silver Notices / Silver Diffusions in a manner similar to all other Notices and Diffusions.” Therefore, the subjects of unlawful Silver Notices and Silver Diffusions issued during the pilot phase have the right to file requests to delete them with the Commission.  As a side note, it is possible, and ironic, that in considering such requests, the Commission will develop its jurisprudence concerning Silver Notices and Silver Diffusions before INTERPOL finalizes and its General Assembly approves the rules governing them.