⚖️ The international experience of implementing whistleblower protection guarantees shows that the level of corruption disclosure in the country depends on the legal framework of protection and the effectiveness of the institutions involved in the protection of whistleblowers.
A person will be more motivated to report corruption if he is confident that the state will be able to protect him in case of persecution.
Since January 1, 2020, whistleblowers have received the right to free secondary legal aid, which is one of the most important guarantees for the protection of whistleblowers' rights.
Free secondary legal assistance includes the following types of legal services:
▪️ defense against prosecution;
▫️ representation of interests in courts, other organizations;
▪️ drawing up procedural documents.
It is important to note that free secondary legal aid is provided to the whistleblower only in connection with the circumstances related to his report.
📄 During these years, 54 orders were issued to provide free secondary legal assistance to whistleblowers: in 2020 – 19, in 2021 – 22, in 2022 – 3, and in 10 months of 2023 – 10 orders.
Despite the indicated indicators, the Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2021-2025 states that the protection of whistleblowers is not carried out properly, in particular, due to insufficient institutional capacity of the bodies involved in protection.
To solve this problem, the State Anti-corruption Program for 2023-2025 provides measures aimed at improving the level of qualification and competence of judges in cases related to the protection of the rights of whistleblowers, employees and lawyers of free legal aid centers.
The Foundation for Institutional Development is already working on the implementation of these measures.
In particular, experts Olena Karpova and Oksana Bronevytska developed and conducted two trainings on the topic: «Peculiarities of providing legal assistance to whistleblowers» for lawyers of free legal aid centers.
The following topics were discussed during the training:
▪️ the role of whistleblowers in preventing corruption;
▫️ whistleblower protection rights and guarantees;
▪️ where and how to report corruption;
▫️ who can protect the whistleblower in case of violation of his rights;
▪️ responsibility for violation of the rights of whistleblowers;
▫️ peculiarities of consideration of court cases with the participation of whistleblowers (civil, criminal, administrative process, administrative offense cases).
In addition, the relevance of such measures lies in the fact that specialists of the system of providing free legal aid will be able to spread the acquired knowledge about whistleblowers and guarantees of their protection, carrying out legal education activities.
The event was held by the Coordinating Center for the Provision of Legal Aid with the assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine in the framework of “EU4Recovery — Empowering Communities in Ukraine” (EU4Recovery) project, with financial support from the European Union.
