The short answer. A Red Notice is published by INTERPOL, at a country's request, to search for a person "with a view to his/her detention, arrest or restriction of movement". An extradition request is made by one state to another, through diplomatic or treaty channels, asking for the person to be surrendered. The notice finds you; the request moves you. INTERPOL has nothing to do with the second — and its Commission "is not empowered to evaluate the appropriateness of extradition".
People say “INTERPOL is extraditing me”. INTERPOL extradites nobody.
The Red Notice
A request for cooperation, circulated through INTERPOL’s channels, based on a national warrant. It is “not an arrest warrant”; it asks countries to locate and provisionally arrest a person, and “member countries apply their own laws in deciding whether to arrest”. It is reviewed by INTERPOL’s General Secretariat and challenged before the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files on INTERPOL’s grounds — Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution, Article 83 of the data rules, data quality. Its life is in INTERPOL’s files; its effect is at borders.
The extradition request
A formal act between two states. Under the European Convention on Extradition, the model for many treaties, the request “shall be in writing and shall be communicated through the diplomatic channel”, supported by the warrant or judgment, “a statement of the offences” and the relevant law. It is decided by the requested state’s courts and ministers under their own extradition law — double criminality, human-rights bars, political-offence exceptions — with no INTERPOL involvement. Its life is in national courts; its effect is surrender.
The notice is an alert; the request is a demand. Winning against one does not dispose of the other.
How they connect
Usually in sequence. A country issues a warrant, asks INTERPOL for a Red Notice, and waits. When a member country reports a hit, the requesting country must send its formal request within the treaty deadline or the person is released: under the European Convention, release becomes possible after 18 days without the request, and provisional arrest may not exceed 40 days. Some countries, the United States among them, will not arrest on a notice alone. Either way the notice’s job ends where the request’s begins.
Why the distinction decides your strategy
Because the remedies differ and both are needed. Extradition is fought in the arresting country, by lawyers admitted there, on that country’s law — and a refusal binds that country alone. The notice is fought before the Commission, on INTERPOL’s rules, by anyone — and a deletion binds INTERPOL everywhere, but leaves the warrant and any pending request untouched. A reasoned refusal is powerful evidence in a deletion request, as Does a refused extradition end a Red Notice? explains; a deletion ends airport arrests, not the case. Plan for both, and read What happens if I am arrested on a Red Notice abroad? before you need it.
Related
- Is a Red Notice an international arrest warrant?
- What happens if I am arrested on a Red Notice abroad?
- Does a refused extradition end a Red Notice?
- INTERPOL — Red Notices — interpol.int
- INTERPOL's Rules on the Processing of Data, Article 82 — interpol.int
- European Convention on Extradition, ETS No. 24, 1957, Articles 12 and 16 — rm.coe.int
- CCF Annual Activity Report 2024, page 9 — interpol.int
- Congressional Research Service, INTERPOL In Focus IF10766, 2024 — congress.gov
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