Key Whistleblower Laws

Whistleblowers can play a powerful role in challenging corruption, transnational crime, and environmental destruction, but protections and rewards for whistleblowers vary widely around the world.

At least 59 countries around the world have whistleblower laws. However, the strength of these laws vary widely between countries.

The United States has been a leading influence in enacting whistleblower laws with key protections and incentives, including confidential handling of disclosures, financial awards, and independent reporting channels. Currently, there are dozens of laws at the federal, state, and local levels designed to encourage whistleblowers to come forward.

A myriad of U.S. laws allow for whistleblowers around the globe to come forward with evidence of transnational crimes like illegal trafficking and money laundering.

Whistleblowers around the world with information regarding high scale financial fraud like money laundering have multiple legal avenues, including powerful U.S. laws.

A series of laws passed by the U.S. Congress over the past several decades have sweeping transnational applications to the private sector. Under most of these laws, corporate whistleblowers around the world are now able to come forward with information confidentially.

NWC is educating whistleblowers who wish to report crimes in the three industry sectors responsible for the vast majority of the world’s carbon pollution: oil & gas, coal, and industrial logging. As part of this work, we've investigated the high risk of fraud in these industries and the legal regime that applies.

Wildlife whistleblowers are one of the greatest tools to combat the illegal wildlife trafficking network. With provisions in law such as the Lacey Act, whistleblowers can detect wildlife crime and potentially receive awards when disclosing information that leads to successful enforcement action.

Public employees in service of the U.S. government have distinct protections under the law than whistleblowers working in the corporate sector. Learn more about them here.

U.S. intelligence community whistleblowers operate under a different set of laws and protections than other federal employees. The National Whistleblower Center is educating these whistleblowers about their specific rights under law.