On 21 October 2022, the Economic Crime and Cooperation Division organised a remote roundtable event to present the findings of the second analysis conducted of legislative amendments aiming at whistleblower protection against infringement of rights and legitimate interests in the field of labour relations in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The event was attended by the representatives of the Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Participants discussed with the Council of Europe expert the measures needed to align the legislative amendments with international standards and practices in order to enhance the protection of whistleblowers.
The assessment findings highlighted the need to consider expanding the scope of protection of whistleblowers in order to fully take into account the recommendations made in the GRECO’s evaluation report on the Republic of Kazakhstan as well as include other types of reportable wrongdoing such as human rights violations, health, safety and environmental damage. The assessment findings also underlined the need to strengthen the existing protection of whistleblowers.
The event aimed to provide support to the Republic of Kazakhstan to address GRECO recommendation (joint first and second evaluation rounds) highlighting that “the general protection of whistleblowers should be improved in legislation and practice to include additional safeguards for those reporting corrupt practices in good faith. The new legislation should also establish liability for persons undermining the whistleblowers’ protection process, and provide effective mechanisms, ensured by the State, to trigger this liability in practice”.
This activity was organised by the Action on “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime”, in the framework of the Central Asia Rule of Law Programme 2020-2023, which is a joint initiative co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe. The Action is aimed at strengthening capacities to fight and prevent economic crime in five Central Asian countries, including the Republic of Kazakhstan.