{"id":135909,"date":"2021-03-01T12:39:49","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T10:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/amerykanski-girky"},"modified":"2021-03-01T17:49:56","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T15:49:56","slug":"amerykanski-girky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/amerykanski-girky","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s Roller Coaster Ride on Whistleblower Protections Symptomatic of Uneven Commitment to Anti-Corruption Reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Opinion: <\/em>Anna Myers, Executive Director of the Whistleblowing International Network<\/a> (WIN) and Tom Devine, Legal Director of the Government Accountability Project in Washington DC, and a Trustee of WIN.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2019, Ukraine enacted landmark anti-corruption legislation including whistleblower protections unsurpassed for compliance with international best practices principles. Now Parliament has enacted amendments to Draft Law #3450 which, if signed into law, will cause Ukraine to plummet from a global role model for whistleblower protection legislation to a global embarrassment.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until a few weeks ago, Ukraine\u2019s 2019\nwhistleblower protections set the pace globally both for fighting corruption\nand for freedom of speech. Then a Member of Parliament, Serhii Vlasenko, abruptly\nslipped poison pill amendments into Draft Law #3450 that will transform the\nlandmark reform into the world\u2019s crudest trap for whistleblowers – exposing and\nrendering them defenseless against retaliation. Any self-respecting whistleblower\nrights group would be duty-bound to warn anyone trying to exercise their\nresponsibility to report corruption that doing so under these newly written conditions\nwould be an act of professional suicide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Draft Law #3450 started as a highly\ncommendable effort by establishing the legal foundation for the National Agency\nfor Corruption Prevention (NACP), to create and administer an anonymous, secure\nunified government-wide Whistleblower Reporting Channel (or \u201cportal\u201d). The\nportal would make it easier and safer for whistleblowers to report corruption,\nand reduce the risks of unauthorized access to their messages.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MP Vlasenko justified his amendments as separating\n\u201csnitches\u201d from whistleblowers. Ironically, they will force whistleblowers to\nbe snitches to retain their rights. For all practical purposes, whistleblowers would\nlose all protection unless they go behind their employer\u2019s back to the\ngovernment and expose the colleagues who assisted them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the devilish details behind this\ndeception? The law does not weaken rights to public dissent, but 96% of\nwhistleblowers first raise their concerns within the organization where they\nwork. They do so as part of their job duties and through internal institutional\nchecks and balances when necessary. Therein lies the Achilles heel. By the time\nwhistleblowers go public they will already be legally defenseless against dismissal,\nbecause the amendments create a gauntlet for internal reports that is virtually\nimpossible to survive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, the employee must have \u201cconclusive knowledge\u201d of corruption-related guilt.  The European Union\u2019s new Directive to protect whistleblowers<\/a> and consensus global standards only require a reasonable belief that the information is true. This is because whistleblowers are witnesses, not substitutes for prosecutors or courts. These amendments would require them to have much more evidence just to be eligible for any protection when reporting concerns than prosecutors need to put someone in jail.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, employees can only make protected\nreports to the organizational chief. This cancels rights for every other normal\nroute to communicate concerns within an organization, such as to supervisors,\nauditors and compliance officers. If the top boss is not available, there is\nnowhere to turn with rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even reporting to the organizational chief\nis not safe, however, unless the employee can prove \u201dconclusive knowledge\u201d the boss\nis innocent of involvement with the corruption. How can an employee ever have\nthat degree of knowledge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bottom line? There is no safe outlet\nfor employees to blow the whistle where they work. They only can keep their\nrights by going behind their employer\u2019s back and reporting directly to the\ngovernment. In other words, if you are not a snitch, you lose your rights and\nare legally defenseless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It gets even worse after going to the\ngovernment. To retain rights, they must reveal their sources, including all who\nhelped them gather evidence. Again, they will have to be snitches.  The inevitable result would be isolating\nwhistleblowers by making them a real threat to all who assist in challenging\ncorruption but do not want to be revealed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a double-barreled attack both on protection\nand the effective reporting of corruption. As the first principle for\nwhistleblower rights, solidarity is essential both for survival and for a\nreport with the necessary evidence to make a difference. It takes a whole team\nto blow the whistle responsibly. If the law only protects the final messenger\nof the report and exposes the supporting team, it will be a powerful weapon\nagainst its own stated purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These amendments defy the EU Directive\u2019s genuine rights, which 27 EU Member States nations must adopt this year and is a criterion to approve new Members. They cannot coexist with the Council of Europe\u2019s Committee of Ministers 2014 Recommendation the protection of whistleblowing<\/a>, which Ukraine is subject along with 46 other countries in Europe. That is why the Whistleblowing International Network (WIN), with the backing of 40 whistleblower support, transparency and good government NGOs, urged President Zelensky<\/a> to veto Draft Law #3450 and send it back to Ukraine\u2019s Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) to remove the poison pill amendments while keeping the much-needed whistleblower reporting channel. The integrity of Ukraine\u2019s anti-corruption commitment is in President Zelensky\u2019s hands. Unless he vetoes this outrage and sends it back to the Parliament to fix, so-called whistleblower rights will be dangerous, and Ukraine will defy the European Union\u2019s mandate to fight corruption through freedom of speech. Whistleblowers are indeed the true Servants of the People.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opinion: Anna Myers, Executive Director of the Whistleblowing International Network (WIN) and Tom Devine, Legal Director of the Government Accountability Project in Washington DC, and a Trustee of WIN. In December 2019, Ukraine enacted landmark anti-corruption legislation including whistleblower protections unsurpassed for compliance with international best practices principles. Now Parliament has enacted amendments to Draft […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":135904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[699],"tags":[7158,34396,1557,7159,6908],"section":[743],"form":[],"yoast_head":"\nUkraine\u2019s Roller Coaster Ride on Whistleblower Protections Symptomatic of Uneven Commitment to Anti-Corruption Reforms | UACRISIS.ORG<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Opinion: Anna Myers, Executive Director of the Whistleblowing International Network (WIN) and Tom Devine, Legal Director of the Government Accountability | Uacrisis.org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/amerykanski-girky\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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