GYH Experts Cited in Landmark Freedom House Report on Transnational Repression
By Dr. Ted R. Bromund
Freedom House, the well-regarded U.S. non-governmental organization that has been the leader in reporting on and collecting data about transnational repression, has launched its latest report on the subject, titled “Collaboration and Resistance: Tracking Transnational Repression in 2025.”
Transnational repression is a difficult concept to define precisely. Indeed, as Freedom House observes, a definition “does not need to enumerate all of the tactics of transnational repression, because tactics can evolve.” But “transnational repression is committed by states and their proxies, against individuals living abroad who share a national connection to the origin state, and hinders fundamental rights such as the freedoms of expression, belief, and association.”
This report is the eighth by Freedom House. Its previous reports have covered a range of topics, including controls on movements, transnational repression on U.S. campuses, and policy responses to transnational report. The latest report records 126 new incidents of physical, direct transnational repression during the year. Freedom House’s database, covering 2014 to 2025, now has 1,375 total cases.
The nations responsible for perpetrating most of these new incidents will not come as a surprise to informed observers. As Freedom House observes, “Autocrats collaborating in Southeast Asia and in East Africa were responsible for the majority of incidents recorded during the year.” The top ten perpetrator states include the People’s Republic of China, Turkey, Russia, Iran, and a number of nations in Central Asia.
While detention and unlawful deportation are the most common tactics, Freedom House also recorded 11 uses of INTERPOL notices against exiles, “suggesting that the organization’s reforms have not yet addressed avenues for abuse available to member governments.” The abusing regimes included Egypt, Kuwait, and Turkmenistan.
While the cases cited by Freedom House are significant, it should be noted that these 11 cases make up only a tiny share of the total volume of INTERPOL abuse. GYH experts are often asked how often INTERPOL abuse occurs. No one – not even INTERPOL itself – knows precisely how much abuse there is, because most INTERPOL notices are not examined in detail.
But in 2024, the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files (CCF), INTERPOL’s own appellate body, found 322 cases in which data did not comply with INTERPOL’s rules, or in which nations completely refused to cooperate with the CCF when it attempted to verify the data’s compliance. The true amount of INTERPOL abuse is thus vastly higher – hundreds of times higher – than the number of cases cited by Freedom House.
GYH is proud that its experts – including Sandra Grossman Esq., Charlie Magri Esq. (writing for his blog at Otherside Law), and Dr. Ted R. Bromund – were cited by Freedom House in its reporting on INTERPOL abuse. GYH is committed to providing strategic advice and legal counsel to clients affected by INTERPOL mechanisms, and to advocating for reforms to INTERPOL and national-level processes that will reduce INTERPOL abuse.
