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Interpol Black Notice

An Interpol Black Notice is issued to seek information on unidentified bodies and to help establish the identity of deceased persons. Unlike the Red Notice, it is not used to pursue criminals but to assist law enforcement in identifying human remains found across international borders. Our lawyers provide expert legal support on all Interpol notice matters.

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What Is an Interpol Black Notice?

An Interpol Black Notice is an international request for information on unidentified bodies. It is issued to help identify deceased persons found under circumstances where their identity cannot be established through conventional means. Unlike most Interpol notices, the Black Notice concerns the deceased rather than living individuals, and it functions primarily as a forensic identification tool rather than a law enforcement alert.

Interpol Black Notice — identification of unidentified deceased persons

Black Notices are circulated through Interpol’s secure I-24/7 network to all 196 member countries, enabling global law enforcement collaboration in identifying unknown deceased persons. The information shared may also link a body to an open missing persons case, a criminal investigation, or a known criminal network.

Legal Basis and Who Requests Black Notices

Black Notices are issued by Interpol’s General Secretariat at the request of a member country’s National Central Bureau (NCB). The requesting NCB must have exhausted conventional identification means — fingerprint checks, DNA databases, dental records — without success. The notice then enables access to the identification resources of all 196 member countries simultaneously.

Requests may also originate from international tribunals or, in specific cases, from the United Nations Security Council when the identification of remains is connected to international crimes or major incidents. Interpol’s regulations require that the information shared in a Black Notice be used exclusively for police purposes and handled with appropriate respect for the dignity of the deceased.

Information Contained in a Black Notice

A Black Notice typically contains the following forensic and circumstantial data:

Physical description of the deceased: sex, estimated age, height, build, hair and eye colour
Photographs of the body and face where available, including facial reconstructions in decomposed cases
Fingerprints and/or palm prints if they can be obtained
DNA profile where analysis has been conducted
Dental records and dental chart
Distinctive physical features: tattoos, scars, surgical implants, piercings, birthmarks
Clothing, jewellery, and personal belongings found with the body
Circumstances and location of discovery
Cause of death if established, and manner of death (natural, accidental, homicide, undetermined)
Forensic findings relevant to identification

How Black Notices Are Used in Criminal Investigations

Black Notices serve multiple investigative functions beyond the humanitarian goal of identifying the deceased for the purposes of informing the family:

Linking bodies to missing persons cases: A Black Notice may match a deceased individual to an open missing persons case in another country, providing closure to families and closing investigations
Connecting remains to criminal networks: Identification of a victim can expose criminal operations — particularly in human trafficking, organised crime, and drug trafficking — by revealing the deceased’s last known associations and movements
Supporting prosecution: Establishing the identity of a homicide victim is a prerequisite for criminal proceedings in most jurisdictions
Mass disaster identification: In events involving multiple fatalities — plane crashes, natural disasters, terrorist attacks — Black Notices can facilitate the coordinated international identification effort

A notable example of Black Notices being used to maximum effect is Interpol’s Operation Identify Me, which publicly released information about 22 unidentified female murder victims from across Europe, inviting the public to come forward with information. The operation used facial reconstructions, photographs of distinctive jewellery, and detailed descriptions to generate leads that could not be obtained through law enforcement channels alone.

Confidentiality and Privacy

Unlike some other Interpol notices, Black Notices are not published on Interpol’s public website. They are accessible only to law enforcement agencies within the I-24/7 network. This restriction reflects the sensitivity of information about deceased persons and the need to protect the dignity of the dead while the investigation is ongoing.

However, in exceptional cases — such as Operation Identify Me — Interpol and member countries may agree to release selected information publicly in order to maximise the chances of identification. Such public releases are conducted carefully to balance the investigative need for information against privacy and dignity considerations.

Rights and Challenge Procedures

Because Black Notices concern deceased persons rather than living individuals, the usual individual rights framework that applies to other Interpol notices — such as the right to request data access or challenge a notice through the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files (CCF) — applies in a more limited way. However:

Family members of the deceased have an interest in ensuring that their relative’s information is handled respectfully and that the notice is removed once identification is made and the case is closed
In cases where a living person believes their information has been mistakenly associated with a Black Notice, or where a notice contains incorrect forensic data, a formal complaint can be submitted to the CCF for review
Once the deceased is identified, the issuing country should request that the notice be withdrawn from the Interpol database

Our Legal Assistance

Our international legal team assists in several scenarios connected to Black Notices:

Family support: We can advise families of missing persons on how the Black Notice system works and how to engage with authorities when they believe a Black Notice may relate to their missing relative
Post-identification legal matters: Following identification of a deceased person, complex legal issues can arise — inheritance proceedings, criminal investigations, compensation claims — for which our lawyers can provide guidance
Wrongful data association: In rare cases where a living person’s information has been incorrectly linked to a Black Notice, we can challenge the data entry through the CCF
Criminal defence: Where a Black Notice is connected to a homicide investigation and a suspect is identified, our lawyers provide criminal defence representation in the related proceedings

FAQ

What is the difference between a Black Notice and a Yellow Notice?

A Black Notice is issued to help identify unidentified deceased persons — bodies found without identification or with suspected false documents. A Yellow Notice is issued to help locate living missing persons. In some cases a Yellow Notice is issued when a person disappears and is later converted to or accompanied by a Black Notice if the person is found deceased but unidentified.

Are Interpol Black Notices publicly available?

Generally, no. Black Notices are circulated only to authorised law enforcement agencies through Interpol's I-24/7 secure network. However, in Operation Identify Me, Interpol took the exceptional step of publicly releasing forensic details from 22 Black Notices relating to unidentified murder victims to generate public identification leads. This remains an exception rather than the standard practice.

Can a Black Notice be challenged?

Black Notices target unidentified deceased persons, so in most cases there is no living subject who can assert rights. However, if a Black Notice contains data about a living person incorrectly assumed to be deceased, or if the notice violates Interpol's data quality rules, an affected individual may approach the Commission for the Control of Interpol's Files (CCF) for correction or deletion.

How does Interpol use Black Notices in disaster victim identification?

Black Notices are a key tool in Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) operations following mass casualty events. When victims of plane crashes, natural disasters, or terrorist attacks include foreign nationals, Black Notices allow cross-border matching of DNA, fingerprints, and dental records with missing persons databases in other countries. Interpol has a dedicated DVI unit that coordinates these operations.