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Resolution 2060 on Improving the Protection of Whistle-Blowers (Parl. Ass. Council Eur.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Günter Schirmer  and
Sandra Coliver
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Extract

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), comprised of 324 parliamentarians elected by and from the parliaments of the Council’s 47 member states, first addressed the protection of whistle-blowers in 2010.1 The Assembly overwhelmingly endorsed a report prepared by Pieter Omtzigt (the Netherlands/European People’s Party) on behalf of its Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. This report broke new ground in that—unlike the situation in the United Kingdom and the United States—the very concept of public-interest whistleblowing was still widely unknown in continental Europe. Populations with histories of authoritarian or even totalitarian rule had little love for those who were widely considered to be “informers,” “snitches,” or the like.2 The PACE report recognized the importance of whistle-blowers, defining them as “concerned individuals who sound an alarm in order to stop wrongdoings that place fellow human beings at risk,” and whose actions “provide an opportunity to strengthen accountability and bolster the fight against corruption and mismanagement, both in the public and private sectors.”3 The PACE recommendation based on this report bore its first fruits in 2014, when the Committee of Ministers (CM), in Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)7, invited member states to improve legal protections for whistle-blowers in line with certain guiding principles.4 This was the first legal instrument in Europe to place whistleblowing squarely within a human rights framework.

Type
International Legal Materials
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 54 , Issue 6 , December 2015 , pp. 1130 - 1134
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2015

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References

* This text was reproduced and reformatted from the text available at the Council of Europe website (visited November 30, 2015), http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewPDF.asp?FileID=21931&lang=en.

1 See Eur. Parl. Ass., Res. on the Protection of “Whistle-Blowers”, Doc. No. 1729 (2010); Eur. Parl. Ass., Recommendation on the Protection of “Whistle-Blowers”, Doc. No. 1916 (2010).

2 Whistleblowing International Network, “Whistleblower”: International Translations, Terminology and Word Origins (2014)Google Scholar, available at https://whistlenetwork.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/global-words-whistleblower-win-2014-docx.pdf (listing terms for whistleblowers and their connotations and derivations used in more than a dozen countries).

3 Res. 1729, supra note 1, ¶ 1.

4 Comm. of Ministers, Recommendation on the Protection of Whistleblowers, Doc. No. CM/Rec(2014)7 (2014), available at https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=2188855&Site=CM.

5 Pieter Omtzigt, Comm. on Legal Aff. and H.R., Rep. on Mass Surveillance, Doc. No. 13734 (2015); Eur. Parl. Ass., Res. on Mass Surveillance, Doc. No. 2045 (2015); Eur. Parl. Ass., Recommendation on Mass Surveillance, Doc. No. 2067 (2015).

6 Eur. Parl. Ass., Rep. on Improving the Protection of Whistle-Blowers, Doc. No. 13791 (2015); Eur. Parl. Ass., Res. on Improving the Protection of Whistle-Blowers, Doc. No. 2060 (2015); Eur. Parl. Ass., Recommendation on Improving the Protection of Whistle-Blowers, Doc. No. 2073 (2015).

7 Eur. Parl. Ass., Res. on National Security and Access to Information, Doc. No. 1954 (2013) was adopted following consideration of a report on national security and access to information written by Arcadio Diaz Tejera (Spain/Social Democrats). See Arcadia Diaz Tejera, Comm. on Legal Aff. and H.R., Rep. on National Security and Access to Information, Doc. No. 13293 (2013); Eur. Parl. Ass., Recommendation on National Security and Access to Information, Doc. No. 2024 (2013).

8 The Global Principles on National Security and the Right to Information (Tshwane Principles), June, 12, 2013, princ. 43(a), https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/global-principles-national-security-10232013.pdf.

9 Id. Principle 43(b) lists five considerations: “(i) whether the extent of the disclosure was reasonably necessary to disclose the information of public interest; (ii) the extent and risk of harm to the public interest caused by the disclosure; (iii) whether the person had reasonable grounds to believe that the disclosure would be in the public interest; (iv) whether the person attempted to make a protected disclosure through internal procedures and/or to an independent oversight body, and/or to the public, in compliance with the procedures outlined in Principles 38 – 40; and (v) the existence of exigent circumstances justifying the disclosure.”

10 Res. 2060, supra note 6, ¶ 10.2.

11 In February 2014, a committee of the European Parliament had considered such a resolution calling for asylum and protection for Snowden should he leave Russia, but it was voted down. See Snowden “Left in the Lurch” by EU Parliament, Deutsche, Welle (Feb. 13, 2014)Google Scholar, http://www.dw.com/en/snowden-left-in-the-lurch-by-eu-parliament/a-17429568.

12 Follow-up to the European Parliament Resolution of 12 March 2014 on the Electronic Mass Surveillance of EU citizens (European Parliament), Eur. Parl. Doc. 2635(RSP), ¶¶ F(2), 42 (Oct. 29, 2015), available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+TA+P8-TA-2015-0388+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN.

13 Recommendation 2073, supra note 6, ¶ 3.1.

14 Res. 2060, supra note 6, ¶ 10.1.1.

15 Transparency International, Whistleblowing in the EU: Legal Protections for Whistleblowers in the EU 5 (2013)Google Scholar.

16 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Resource Guide on Good Practices in the Protection of Reporting Persons (2015)Google Scholar, available at http://www.unodc.org/documents/corruption/Publications/2015/15-04741_Person_Guide_eBook.pdf.

17 David Kaye (Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression), Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, U.N. Doc. A/70/361 (Sept. 8, 2015), available at http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N15/273/11/PDF/N1527311.pdf?OpenElement.

1. Assembly debate on 23 June 2015 (21st Sitting) (see Doc. 13791, report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, rapporteur: Mr Pieter Omtzigt). Text adopted by the Assembly on 23 June 2015 (21st Sitting). See also Recommendation 2073 (2015).