Protection of whistleblowers in the security sector

Serbia provided legal protection for whistleblowers for the first time when it adopted the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers in 2014. This protection is exercised in special court proceedings. The Law was adopted on 25 November 2014 and its implementation began on 5 June 2015. The explanation that accompanied the Draft Law made it clear that it was adopted to fulfil the international recommendations and meet the obligations of the Republic of Serbia, primarily those prescribed by the acts of the United Nations and the Council of Europe. The Law regulates whistleblowing, the whistleblowing procedure, the rights of whistleblowers, the obligations of state and other authorities and organisations, legal entities and natural persons related to whistleblowing, as well as other issues of importance for whistleblowing and the protection of whistleblowers.

During the five years of implementation, practical manuals and advice related to the application of the Law have been made available to the citizens. There have also been trainings for judges and courts acting in cases that involve whistleblowing. The practice of high courts, which have subject-matter jurisdiction in protecting whistleblowers, is slowly emerging. Unfortunately, high courts, as well as the Supreme Court of Cassation, still do not keep and publish special records on citizens who requested judicial protection in connection with whistleblowing, harmful consequences that caused them to ask for protection, or any other details of the procedure such as personal characteristics of persons who sought it. The availability of these records is crucial for assessing the fulfilment of the goals for which the Law was passed. As these data are not publicly available, the structure of the whistleblowers is unknown, as well as how many of them were officials employed in the security sector.

However, the protection of whistleblowers in the security sector is becoming an increasingly current issue in Serbia. On the one hand, there are more and more people who, for professional and moral reasons, point to the unlawful work of institutions in the security sector. Practice has shown that officials pointing out irregularities in the work of (especially) public authorities in which they are employed can lead to an extremely quick reaction of the repressive apparatus, primarily the criminal law one. These persons are most often subjected to accusations that they provided information that the i nstitutions in which they are employed had marked with different degrees of classification, as well as accusations that they had acted unscrupulously and contrary to the rules of the service. In these situations, whistleblowers give up possible judicial protection and turn exclusively to criminal defence. Perhaps envisaging precisely such an outcome, the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers provides for special protection of persons in the performance of their official duties. However, many aspects of this protection are still vague and/or insufficiently well defined. It is this ambiguity, together with unfavourable practice, that brings us back to the need to review these solutions one more time

This article is part of a joint effort by the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), the National Coalition for Decentralisation (NKD), the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) and Partners for Democratic Change to encourage greater citizen participation in decision-making through the “Citizens Have Power” project, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of USAID.