Kazakhstan’s government wants to protect whistleblowers

The lower chamber of Kazakhstan’s parliament has approved in the first reading a new draft law that aims at protecting those who reported a corruption-related crime.

According to the current legislation, the state protects informants if they are part of a criminal investigation and the risk of violence against them is real.

The new draft law suggests protecting cooperative individuals in the area of workplace relations as well. As a result, it is going to be impossible to fire an employee if he reports a corruption-related crime committed by his boss. Moreover, a whistleblower that helps law enforcement officials to investigate a case can’t be the subject of disciplinary action or get fired or transferred to another position without a mitigation committee’s recommendation.

The personal data of a whistleblower is going to be classified. Disclosure of that information would be punishable by law.