The short answer. More than usual. The 94th General Assembly meets in Hong Kong from 30 November to 3 December 2026 — the first session held there and the third in China. Besides approving INTERPOL's programme, strategic framework and budget, its agenda lists fugitive investigations, the Silver Notice pilot and AI-enabled crime; it receives the Commission's report for 2025; and, for the first time since 2021, it elects all seven members of the body that decides Red Notice deletion requests.
What the Assembly is
Article 6 of the Constitution makes the General Assembly “the body of supreme authority”, composed of delegates appointed by the member countries’ governments. It meets every year (Article 10); each country has one vote (Article 13); most decisions pass by simple majority, amendments to the Constitution by two-thirds (Articles 14 and 42). Under Article 8 it lays down the general measures for INTERPOL’s aims, approves the programme of activities, adopts regulations and elects the people the Constitution requires. The rules that decide a notice’s fate — the data rules, the Commission’s Statute — are its work, and only it can change them (Statute Article 49).
What is on the agenda
INTERPOL’s listing names the themes: transnational organized crime, new policing capabilities, fugitive investigations, the Silver Notice pilot, child victims, and AI-enabled crime and terrorism. Two items touch Red Notice subjects directly. The Silver Notice — INTERPOL’s newest alert, piloted since January 2025 to trace criminal assets — comes back to the body that must approve any new category of notice (data rules, Article 73(2)). And the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files reports to each Assembly under Article 43 of its Statute, so its report for 2025 — the first figures since the 2024 report found 60 per cent of decided deletion requests non-compliant — is tabled in Hong Kong. The report’s own road map said the Statute review would continue “in 2026 and potentially beyond”; further amendments, if the Committee on the Processing of Data has finished them, come here.
The election
Every seat on the Commission falls vacant on 11 March 2027, and this Assembly fills them by secret ballot from a list of nineteen candidates the Executive Committee declared eligible in June (Statute Article 9). Newly elected members serve five years, re-elected members three. Five of the seven sitting members are standing. Monday’s post looks at who they are and what the choice means for a pending request.
How much you will see
Little, live. The media invitation says the opening and closing ceremonies are open to accredited journalists while “the plenary sessions and official proceedings” are not. Resolutions and the Commission’s report appear on INTERPOL’s website afterwards, as does the Chairperson’s speech. The practical reading for anyone with a file before the Commission: the people who will sit at its 2027 sessions are chosen in the first week of December.
Related
- When does the CCF actually decide your case?
- What is a Silver Notice, and why does it matter?
- What changed in the CCF’s Statute in 2025, and what is ‘misuse of CCF proceedings’?
- INTERPOL — 94th INTERPOL General Assembly, Hong Kong, China, 30 November to 3 December 2026 — interpol.int
- INTERPOL — Media invitation for the 94th session of the INTERPOL General Assembly, 30 September 2026 — interpol.int
- INTERPOL — Constitution of the ICPO-INTERPOL, Articles 6 to 8, 10, 13, 14, 42 and 44 — interpol.int
- INTERPOL — Elections of the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL's Files — interpol.int
- Statute of the CCF, Articles 9, 43 and 49, and the references to Resolution GA-2025-93-RES-08 — interpol.int
- CCF Annual Activity Report 2024, paragraphs 10, 18 and 19 — interpol.int
- INTERPOL — Rules on the Processing of Data, Article 73(2) — interpol.int
- INTERPOL — Legal framework governing the 2025 Silver Notice and Silver Diffusion pilot — interpol.int
Looking forward to any questions or comments that you may have! My goal is to help you, and your questions and comments are answered within one working day. And if you are somewhere in this story yourself: the assessment is free.
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