AS/Jur (2023) 17 support further improvements concerning Interpol, so that it fully respects human rights and the rule of law whilst remaining an effective tool for international police co-operation. 4.3. The Committee of Ministers 63. The most relevant document adopted by the Committee of Ministers, which could be relied upon in combating transnational repression, is the “Guidelines on eradicating impunity for serious human rights violations”.95 As far as it is relevant to the scope of the present report, the Guidelines refer to international cooperation in combating impunity, calling on “states [to] fulfil their obligations, notably with regard to mutual legal assistance, prosecutions and extraditions, in a manner consistent with respect for human rights, including the principle of “non-refoulement”, and in good faith.” 5. Proposals to strengthen the fight against transnational repression 64. During our hearing of 22 November 2022, Mr Bruno Min from Fair Trials welcomed the fact that the PACE reports on Interpol had played an influential role in promoting key reforms and improvements. However, despite recent efforts by Interpol to improve its rules and procedures to better protect its systems from missue, they had continued to come across Red Notices and diffusions that violated human rights in individual cases. Mr Min pointed to three main reasons for this. First, there were inadequate systems for performing ex ante checks on requests for Red Notices and diffusions before they were circulated: the Notices and Diffusions Task Force in Interpol was made of around 30-40 staff while the number of Red Notices circulated was over 10, 000 per year. Second, there were concerns about the effectiveness of Interpol’s complaints mechanism, the CCF.96 Challenges regarding its speediness, transparency and the quality of its decisions remained. Third, there was a lack of clarity on how Interpol’s rules are interpreted, especially with regard to Article 2 of its Constitution, which requires Interpol’s systems to be used in ways that are compatible with international human rights standards. According to Mr Min, there was still ample room for further improvements, notably concerning the prior review of Diffusions (which can contain exactly the same request as Red Notices but are not subject to prior review); and the effectiveness of the ex ante and ex post reviews, including the Notices and Diffusions Task Force and the CCF. As regards member States, they should support Interpol by working with the CCF and complying with its decisions as much as possible (e.g. deleting data in national databases where the CCF has decided to delete a Red Notice or Diffusion), by sharing information about refugee status and by supporting the internal review mechanisms of Interpol with additional funding and resources. 65. Mr Vytis Jurkonis from Freedom House Lithuania put forward several proposals to better fight against transnational repression: a definition of transnational repression at European level; tracking cases (including politically motivated extradition requests) domestically; filtering requests from authoritarian countries, which should be vetted more thoroughly; a mechanism of intervention through advocacy work; and suspending certain countries from participating in international cooperation mechanisms in the criminal field. He also mentioned as an example for best practices the inter-ministerial mechanism set up in Lithuania for vetting politically-motivated extradition requests and its well-established cooperation with human rights defenders. This example could be replicated in other countries. 66. Freedom House has made several policy recommendations to better fight against transnational repression.97 Governments that host exiles and targeted diasporas should, inter alia: - establish an official definition of transnational repression to be used by all government agencies; develop a plan to spread awareness among law enforcement agencies, intelligence services, and officials working with refugees and asylum seekers; issue travel advisories about states that engage in transnational repression; develop specific outreach strategies to connect law enforcement agencies with targeted diaspora communities; 95 Committee of Ministers, Guidelines of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on eradicating impunity for serious human rights violations (2011). 96 He admitted that complainants are now receiving reasoned decisions within a year of the complaint and that its decisions have become binding, so that when the CCF finds a Red Notice to be in violation of Interpol’s rules, Interpol is obliged to delete it. 97 https://freedomhouse.org/policy-recommendations/transnational-repression. 20