Description

The impact of the COVID-19 crisis to reporting and whistleblower protection remains largely unknown. While the crisis has had a chilling effect on whistleblowing, reports about misconduct in some sectors have increased exponentially during the pandemic. The crisis has also shown that whistleblowers remain extremely vulnerable to retaliation but has also acted as a catalyst for the adoption of measures to protect whistleblowers in emergency situations. This session will look deeper into the following questions: What has changed during the crisis, what remains the same, and what should be improved? In so doing, it will analyse the effectiveness both in law and in practice of national whistleblower frameworks around the world. It will also discuss new measures and identify good practices that could help promote an open organisational culture, enable effective whistleblower protection, and act as game changers for reporting misconduct after the crisis.