Context and Background

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—have long been criticized for employing repressive domestic measures that violate international human rights standards. In the years since the 2011 Arab uprisings, these governments have intensified their crackdown on dissent through the enactment of repressive laws on counterterrorism, cybercrimes, and peaceful gatherings. These vaguely worded and broadly interpreted national security measures have been used to convict activists, journalists, academics, and others who criticize the government or its leadership. Human rights violations in the region, however, extend well beyond restrictions on freedom of expression. They include patterns of arbitrary arrests, unfair trials, and disproportionate sentencing, including the death penalty, as well as the use of torture and ill-treatment in detention. 

However, the reach of GCC countries’ repression does not stop at national borders. These states have increasingly turned to transnational repression: the extraterritorial targeting of dissidents and critics. This includes unlawful removals such as expulsions, extraditions, and deportations, as well as surveillance, and threats directed at individuals living in exile and their families. These efforts often involve grave human rights violations and rarely occur in isolation; rather, they are frequently enabled by international or regional cooperation.

In this context, intergovernmental organizations have become critical enablers of transnational repression, as authoritarian states, including GCC countries, have exploited these institutions to legitimize and facilitate their efforts to silence opposition abroad. By embedding autocratic norms—particularly the vague and overly broad security provisions—into the frameworks of such organizations, authoritarian governments gain tools to bypass human rights obligations, accelerate extraditions, and enhance their control over perceived political threats. Two organizations are especially notable in this context: the Arab Interior Ministers’ Council (AIMC) and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL). Both have been instrumental as primary channels of intergovernmental cooperation exploited by GCC states to facilitate transnational repression.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The exploitation of intergovernmental organizations like the AIMC and INTERPOL by GCC states has enabled a growing pattern of transnational repression, marked by politically motivated arrests, extraditions, and grave human rights violations. These mechanisms, often operating with limited transparency, inadequate oversight, and vague legal frameworks, have facilitated the targeting of dissidents beyond national borders, often violating the principle of non-refoulement and other international human rights obligations.

To address these abuses, a coordinated and rights-based response is urgently needed:

Legal Reform and Alignment with Human Rights Standards

1. Regional bodies like the AIMC must revise their counter-terrorism conventions to align with international human rights standards, narrowing overly broad definitions of terrorism and ensuring robust protections against politically motivated prosecutions and extraditions.
2. The AIMC should disclose the full text of its Counter-Terrorism Strategy and all procedural rules governing the circulation of arrest warrants.
3. Both the AIMC and INTERPOL must explicitly integrate non-refoulement safeguards into their operational mandates, ensuring that extradition requests involving risks of torture, unfair trial, or enforced disappearance are systematically rejected.

Institutional Cooperation and Conditionality

1. INTERPOL should suspend efforts to deepen cooperation with the AIMC until the AIMC incorporates explicit references to international human rights standards into its legal frameworks and demonstrates adequate procedural safeguards against abuse.
2. Similarly, INTERPOL must refrain from privileging engagement with GCC states until these governments demonstrate genuine implementation of human rights standards and are held accountable for their ongoing abuses.

Transparency and Procedural Improvements

1. The AIMC must grant individuals the right to file access requests and to demand the removal of arrest warrants or diffusions issued against them. It should also establish an independent oversight mechanism to filter out abuses of its systems.
2. INTERPOL must continue reforms to clarify and enhance the transparency of its review procedures for Red Notices and diffusions. It should also improve the responsiveness and efficiency of its GS in processing and updating individuals on their notice status.

Civil Society Oversight and Inclusion

1. These policing bodies must facilitate meaningful engagement with independent civil society and human rights organizations. This includes granting them access to meetings, strategic documents, and procedural frameworks, enabling them to serve as mechanisms for oversight, evaluation, and accountability of institutional practices.
   

   Download the full report: Briefing Paper – Transnational Repression through Intergovernmental Organizations

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