The purpose of a Red Notice, according to INTERPOL, is to “seek the location and arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradition or similar lawful action.”
Srictly speaking, a Red Notice “is not an international arrest warrant.” Rather, a Red Notice is “simply to inform all member countries that the person is wanted based on an arrest warrant or equivalent judicial decision issued by a country or an international tribunal.”
Read more about Interpol red Notices in Italy
Learn more about Extradition proceeding and defence in Italy
Under Italian case law, a Red Notice legitimates an immediate arrest by police for extradition purposes: moreover, the report to Interpol by the requesting State under Italian law constitutes in itself a request for the adoption of the precautionary measure (usually: pretrial detention), preordinated to the receipt of the extradition request by same State which filed the Red Notice.
Within the European Union, Interpol red Notices are replaced by SIS alerts.
"Interpol abuse"
Sadly, and despite its duty to protect fundamental rights, INTERPOL is vulnerable to abuse by member states, which have used its systems as a mechanism of targeting legitimate activists, journalists, and political opponents under the guise of crime fighting.
Remedies against unlawful entries are theoretically possibile, but extremely difficult in practice. If the request for deleting the INTERPOL Red Notice is successful, a formal letter will be received.
In some countries, the successful action against abusive red notices in the Interpol database does NOT prevent an arrest (NATIONAL POLICE DATABASES MAY BE NOT UPDATED).
See Nicola Canestrini's article about Interpol Red Notices (.pdf, ITA, Cassazione penale, 2019)