Leandro Despouy to take position at Interpol

Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra accepted the resignation of Ambassador Leandro Despouy, Special Representative for Human Rights at the international level, and expressed her gratitude for the work performed by the seasoned diplomat, who will take office as an independent expert at Interpol’s Commission for the Control of Files.

Despouy was appointed to Interpol by its General Assembly, in Bali, Indonesia, on 11 November 2016, at the proposal of the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Security of the Argentine Republic.

This is the first time that an Argentinian will hold that position, which is of paramount importance, given that it entails overseeing compliance with rules on red notices, as well as responsibility for deciding, alongside other four experts, which notices should be kept on or withdrawn from the file on international requests for arrest.

In addition to the tasks performed so far by Interpol in the field of international cooperation, the organization is in charge of two significant and growing activities: notices sent by the Sanctions Committee of the United Nations Security Council, which in 2005 adopted a specific resolution in that regard, and requests from a number of international courts, particularly the International Criminal Court.

Despouy is the first Argentinian to be appointed as an independent expert to supervise all issues pertaining to Human Rights at Interpol. He was preceded by Chilean legal scholar Claudio Grossman, former chairman of the IACHR and the United Nations Committee Against Torture, and Croatian legal scholar Nina Vajic, who chaired the commission until now and formerly served as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights.

Press release No. 068/17

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