85th INTERPOL General Assembly – Bali 2016

Photo credit: © Police Department – Mr Richard Marangoni, Police Commissioner, and Christophe Haget, Head of the Criminal Investigation Division.

The 85th INTERPOL General Assembly was held in Bali (Indonesia) from 7 to 10 November 2016. 

Over the four days, the event brought together 830 police chiefs and senior officers from the law enforcement agencies of 164 countries. The Principality of Monaco was represented by Mr Richard Marangoni, the Police Commissioner, and Mr Christophe Haget, Head of the Criminal Investigation Division. 

The session was marked by four key events: 

• The election of a new INTERPOL President, Mr Meng Hongwei,
   Vice Minister of Public Security in China; 

• The election to the Executive Committee of:
  • Vice-President for Europe Mr Alexander Prokopchuk, Major General and Head of INTERPOL’s National Central Bureau in Russia;
  • Delegate for the Americas Mr Néstor Ramón Roncaglia, Chief of the Argentine Federal Police;
  • Delegate for Europe Mr Mátyás Hegyaljai from Hungary, Deputy State Secretary for EU and International Relations. 

• The signature of operational agreements with international organisations; 

• Capacity building to help police forces effectively combat terrorism, cybercriminality and organised crime. 

In his speech, Mr Jürgen Stock, the Secretary General of INTERPOL, thanked his predecessor, Ms Mireille Ballestrazzi, for her personal commitment to serving the 190 member countries and for her remarkable contribution to international policing. 

Monaco’s Police Department was also cited as an example for the I-Checkit project. Developed two years ago for use within the Principality’s hotels, ports and heliport, the aim of the programme is to check travel documents against the INTERPOL databases in real time. It enables false documents used by criminals to be updated as they travel and facilitates identity checks of passengers travelling by sea and air. 

INTERPOL has forged cooperation agreements with several partner organisations in security-related areas in order to improve the global response to transnational crime. The main resolutions, approved by delegates, relate to a call for the systematic collection and recording of biometric information as an integral part of profiling terrorists, and continued strengthening of INTERPOL’s mechanisms for handling information, particularly with regard to red notices and publication. 

In addition, the INTERPOL General Assembly approved the appointment of Mr Hans Corell, former Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the Legal Counsel of the United Nations, as Adviser to conduct a study and make recommendations on the process for membership of INTERPOL. 

New requests for membership from the Republic of Kosovo, the State of Palestine and the Solomon Islands were put to a vote regarding their legal recognition at the international level. A resolution was adopted by a slim majority to suspend the membership process for these countries to enable Mr Corell to report his conclusions before the next general assembly in Beijing (People’s Republic of China). 

On the margins of the event, Mr Richard Marangoni and Mr Christophe Haget were able to hold discussions with the leaders of the French National Police Force on strengthening partnerships between the Monaco Police Department and the Central Headquarters of the French Judicial Police in the fight against terrorism. A working meeting is planned for the beginning of next year in Paris. 

The Indonesian Police Chief, General Tito Karnavian, presented the Monegasque delegation with a souvenir from the Indonesian Police. He thanked the Police Commissioner for the excellent welcome his country was given during the 83rd General Assembly, which was held in Monaco in 2014. 

Photo credit: © Police Department – Mr Richard Marangoni, Police Commissioner, and Christophe Haget, Head of the Criminal Investigation Division.