Note: As climate change brings more intense and more frequent storms, we urge policymakers and corporations to take action to reduce harm from industrial hog operations. Our thoughts are with the people and animals in the path of Hurricane Florence. Hurricane Florence is set to hit roughly 3,300 open air pig waste lagoons on [...]
In 2000, South Africa became the third country in the world to adopt comprehensive legal protections for whistleblowers, following the US and UK. Similar to the UK, South Africa’s Public Disclosure Act requires victimized whistleblowers to file lawsuits in order to be reinstated to their jobs and compensated for financial and other losses. Nearly two [...]
On Tuesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) unveiled the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that takes aim at “both the appearance and the potential for financial conflicts of interest” among those working for the government. Among other measures, the legislation would completely overhaul the current state of lobbying by imposing a lifetime ban on [...]
The United Nations Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) has released its Review of Whistle-Blower Policies and Practices in United Nations System Organizations.For practical purposes, the review is divided into three principal parts. First, based on an evaluation of relevant criteria and consultation with subject matter experts, the reviewers agree on best practices for protecting staff members against [...]
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided in late June to propose changes to its reward program for whistleblowers. The potential changes provide a good opportunity to look at the pros and cons of the system. The motivation for the reward program is simple: given the risk of retaliation, there aren’t many incentives to be [...]
On July 17, Dr. Pamela McPherson and Dr. Scott Allen, who serve as subject matter experts for the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, made the brave decision to blow the whistle on the government’s child detention practices. In their letter to the Senate’s Whistleblowing Caucus, Dr. McPherson and Dr. [...]
In the lifecycle of any given social change, it’s never easy to pinpoint the dividing line that separates the before from the after. Only upon reflection, sometimes years or decades later, can one look back and recognize the transformative moment and place. For me, it was November 17, 2016 in Room ASP 3H of the European Parliament in [...]
It is with great joy, appreciation, and celebration that we at the Government Accountability Project honor Mary Brumder. For fifteen years she committed herself to the task of achieving greater corporate and government accountability through protecting whistleblowers, investigating and verifying their concerns, and developing effective reform strategies for social change related to whistleblower rights and [...]
The recent resignation of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt under a wave of scandals demonstrated the powerful role whistleblowing and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests can play together in exposing abuses and catalyzing accountability. Although Administrator Pruitt’s tenure was marked by scandal throughout, public pressure escalated this past April, when The New York Times published an article detailing the EPA’s [...]
As we noted previously, the United Nations has for some time treated US journalist Matthew Russell Lee in a discriminatory and, we believe, retaliatory manner. He has covered, in depth, a number of issues that have embarrassed the Organization, such as sexual abusescommitted by peacekeepers in Africa, the role of UN peacekeepers in bringing cholera to Haiti, and war [...]
