The role of whistleblowers is more important today than ever, as the public’s expectations that politicians and companies will behave honestly and accountably continue to rise. With these growing expectations, whistleblowing has become a powerful and increasingly mainstream tool for citizens to expose corruption that harms the public interest.

As more people come forward to report misconduct, they need greater protection from dismissal, lawsuits, prosecution and harassment. Responding to this need, all Western Balkan countries now have laws and systems intended to shield citizen corruption-fighters from reprisals. This makes Southeast Europe the global leader in this field. The challenge now is ensuring these systems work effectively and promptly in real-life cases – for the benefit of whistleblowers and anti-corruption officials alike.

In this study, we present the first-ever review of how well these systems are functioning in six Western Balkan countries. The outcomes of retaliation complaints are analyzed to evaluate the performance of whistleblower caseworkers and identify strengths and weaknesses in protection systems. Specifically, we look at how many people applied for protection, how many people received it, and how many people were denied. Where possible, we identify the reasons people were denied protection.

This report is part of the project “Fulfilling the Promise of Whistleblowing: Defending Citizens’ Rights and Curbing Corruption.” The project, overseen by the Southeast Europe Coalition on Whistleblower Protection (the Coalition), is supported by the Balkan Trust for Democracy of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The project works to align policies in the region’s six EU candidate and potential candidate countries with EU rules on whistleblower protection.
Founded in 2015, the Coalition is the leading advocate, advisor and researcher for whistleblower protection policies and systems in Southeast and Eastern Europe.

This analysis was conducted by Coalition members:
• Center for the Study of Democracy and Governance (Albania)
• Infohouse (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Kosovo Law Institute (Kosovo)
• Center for Development of Non-Governmental Organizations (Montenegro)
• Transparency International Macedonia (North Macedonia)
• Belgrade Center for Security Policy (Serbia)