People around the world risk their careers, finances and personal wellbeing to expose corruption, fraud, environmental harm and other wrongdoing. Yet despite real progress in whistleblower protection laws, many who speak up still face retaliation. Each year on World Whistleblowers Day, 23 June, the same question returns: if more countries have legal protections, why do so many whistleblowers remain unprotected?
A whistleblower is someone who speaks up about wrongdoing, a conduct that is illegal, abusive or harmful. They can work in any sector, at any level, including employees or contractors, interns or volunteers, suppliers or former staff. Their disclosures give authorities, journalists and civil society information that would otherwise stay hidden.
Many major corruption scandals, financial crimes and public safety failures have come to light because one person decided to speak up. Without whistleblowers, accountability mechanisms often struggle to uncover wrongdoing behind closed doors.
Around 150 countries have some form of whistleblower protection in their legal systems – a real achievement, and a sign that governments increasingly accept that shielding those who report misconduct is part of good governance.
But there are enormous variations. In many countries, “protection" is no more than a handful of clauses buried in labour or anti-corruption legislation. Roughly 60 countries have dedicated,...
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