Fact sheets

Notices      (Acrobat files)

Based on requests from National Central Bureaus (NCBs), the General Secretariat produces notices in all of the organization’s official languages: Arabic, English, French and Spanish. In addition, notices are used by the International Criminal Tribunals and the International Criminal Court to seek persons wanted for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

The seven types of notices and their objectives are:

	Red Notice To seek the arrest or provisional arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradition.		Yellow Notice To help locate missing persons, often minors, or to help identify persons who are unable to identify themselves.
	Blue Notice To collect additional information about a person’s identity or activities in relation to a crime.		Black Notice To seek information on unidentified bodies.
Green Notice To provide warnings and criminal intelligence about persons who have committed criminal offences and are likely to repeat these crimes in other countries. NB: Minimum criteria for the circulation, by the General Secretariat, of international warning notifications (green notices and equivalent documents).			Orange Notice To warn police, public entities and other international organizations about potential threats from disguised weapons, parcel bombs and other dangerous materials.

	INTERPOL-United Nations Special Notice Issued for groups and individuals who are the targets of UN sanctions against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Another useful tool in the apprehension of fugitives is the ‘diffusion’, a wanted persons message sent by NCBs through I-24/7. Unlike the more formal notice, a diffusion can be sent immediately by an NCB to some or all INTERPOL member countries.

WARNING

The person should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

If a member of the public has any information about a wanted person, they should contact the police where the person has been located or identified directly, not the INTERPOL General Secretariat.

An official INTERPOL Wanted Fugitives list is maintained on the INTERPOL website. This information may be copied and distributed. However, it must be clearly stated that this list represents a very small proportion of the full list; only those notices approved for public dissemination appear on the website. Any unauthorised alteration of any portion of INTERPOL Wanted Fugitives notices is considered as a violation and subject to legal prosecution.