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Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Evolving Landscape for Whistleblower Protection in the UAE - Lexology

Whistleblowing or simply put, the act of drawing attention to or complaining about perceived wrongdoing, misconduct, unethical activity within one’s organisation has been a topic of great relevance in the last few years. While there is no federal law relating to whistleblowing in the UAE, there have been significant legal developments in this area.

The Dubai Law No. 4/2016 on Dubai Economic Security Centre which applies to all entities licensed in Dubai and the freezones established the Dubai Economic Security Centre (DESC). The DESC is tasked to fight corruption, crimes of fraud, bribery, embezzlement, damage to public property, forgery, counterfeiting, money laundering, financing terrorism and monitor financial violations and markets. This law defines a whistleblower as a person who notifies or cooperates with the DESC about any matter that may prejudice the economic security of Dubai. DESC is required to ensure confidentiality and provide the necessary protection to the whistleblower from retaliation or discrimination. However, this law has not seen much practical implementation and is yet to be tested.

In this inBrief, we look at whistleblowing policies that have been adopted by three freezones in the UAE: the Dubai Multi Commodity Centre, the Dubai International Financial Centre, and the Abu Dhabi Global Markets.

Dubai Multi Commodity Centre (DMCC)

Subsequent to the establishment of the DESC, the DMCC, one of Dubai’s most prominent freezones, also issued a...



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