Sunday Read: Human Rights
This summary of whistleblower protections and Human Rights was sent as part of NWC’s “Sunday Read” series that aims to educate supporters about whistleblower stories and whistleblower legislative or policy initiatives and current events. For more information like this, please join our mailing list.
National Whistleblower Center advocates and supports those that expose and report on any corruption, abuse, or danger that is related to the public sphere. Along those lines, protecting civil liberties and human rights has been pivotal to the work of whistleblowing as the agenda to protect the violations relating to humans is a fundamental right that needs to be secured at all costs.
Whistleblowing is a human right going hand in hand with Freedom of Speech. It is infamously known about the inconsistent outcome with blowing the whistle. In certain cases, whistleblowers are celebrated and credited, while in other cases most whistleblowers go through severe danger when they expose corruption. For a good deed, whistleblowers are punished and left to fend for themselves when it comes to the protection of speaking out. NWC believes this issue must be addressed and engages with the human rights community to advance whistleblower protections world-wide.
In this week’s Sunday Reading, we will highlight the importance to recognize both the correlation whistleblowers have with the works of human rights concerns and how we can help further progress this agenda.
Whistleblowers doing the work:
On February 11th, 2022, NWC was cited in the UN Report on Human Rights Defenders. Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, and the United Nations Human Rights Council shed light on prioritizing whistleblower protection considering it is a human rights mechanism.
What organizations are working on this already?
Globally, various organizations have been working on anti-corruption projects that deal with exposing infringements regarding human rights concerns. Transparency International is multinational non-governmental organization that focuses on issues of injustice that would have the greatest effect on people’s lives. In their work, there is some focus on whistleblower protections and the organization is known to strive toward increasing this focus.
Freedom House is a non-profit organization that asserts that freedom flourishes when the governments are held accountable to their people. So if there is a threat to different sectors of identity such as women, minority communities, historically marginalized groups, etc. they will speak out on the threats to democracy and empower citizens to exercise their rights. in 2021 Freedom House supported the CROOK Act which included whistleblower protections.
These are just two of the many organizations whose sole purpose is in speaking out on the violations of human rights abuses, but also makes sure that people are aware of the rights they are inherently subjected to.
Lets Make Sure Whistleblowers are included in Human Rights Efforts:
Although there have been organizations taking the necessary steps in the right direction, there is a long road ahead for ensuring human rights are consistent at all times. Without whistleblowers in our society, corruption will be a predicament that will always evade detection. Action by other non-profit and non-governmental organization is essential and NWC welcomes collaboration.
NWC recognizes and stands by the right to civil liberties and understands the importance it carries in a fair and working democracy. Please donate today to support our continued work to support whistleblowers and the essential role they play in protecting our human rights.
This story was researched and drafted by NWC Intern, Gherabel Matlal, a Senior double major in Philosophy and Political Science at University of California, Riverside.
