Article 3 and Politically Motivated Red Notices
The Constitution of the Organization forbids it from undertaking any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character. Where a case is predominantly political in character, the data has no place in its files at all — this is the strongest ground available, and the hardest to evidence.
Predominance is the whole argument. Almost every case has some political colour if you look for it; what the Commission asks is whether the political element predominates over the ordinary-law element. That is established with country-conditions material, the procedural history of the case, the timing of the charge relative to the person’s public activity, and independent assessments — not with assertion.
What the argument needs
Every ground on this site is stated with what it requires, because a ground without evidence is not an argument. Assembling that evidence is the work — how our lawyers challenge a red notice.
How the Commission has applied it
The published decisions are the only public record of how the rules are read, and they show the same pattern across all four grounds: what is documented succeeds, what is asserted does not — how the CCF has applied this ground.
Frequently asked
What counts as political persecution under Article 3?
A case whose character is predominantly political rather than ordinary-law. The test looks at the nature of the offence, the context, the identity of the person and the timing — not at the label the charge carries.
Is a criminal charge enough to defeat the argument?
No. Politically motivated cases are almost always brought as ordinary offences, most often fraud or embezzlement. The charge is the starting point of the analysis, not the end of it.
What evidence is usually needed?
Country-conditions reporting, the procedural history, evidence of the public activity that preceded the charge, and where available findings by courts or bodies in other states.
Grounds for deleting a red notice — the other three, and how they combine.