Belgrade - At a press conference on June 3, 2015, USAID’s Judicial Reform and Government Accountability Project and the Ministry of Justice launched an educational outreach campaign for the new Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers.  It serves to educate the public on important concepts under the new Law that incorporates added protection mechanisms to shield whistleblowers from retaliation.

“This law is a real Partnership between the state and citizens in the fight against corruption and for the protection of public interests,” said Minister of Justice Nikola Selaković, and added “the novelty that this law introduces is a special monitoring mechanism of the legal practice in the protection of whistleblowers. This is a big test for our judiciary and I urge judicial authorities to begin with the implementation of the new law.”

Gordon Duguid, Charge d’ Affairs of the U.S. Embassy said “I congratulate the Government of Serbia on this significant achievement and I hope that the new law will help Serbia strengthen the rule of law, prevent corruption, and improve public accountability and government transparency.  This new law will help Serbian citizens directly and contribute to Serbia’s path to European Union accession.”     

“According to the Whistleblowing International Network (WIN), many international experts on whistleblowing have praised Serbia’s new whistleblowing legislation, claiming that it can serve as a model for whistleblowing laws across Europe and the rest of the world,” noted Jelena Stojanović from “Pištaljka”, a Serbian whistleblowing advocacy organization.  

During the past five months, USAID and U.S. Department of Justice, in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice and the Judicial Academy, have trained nearly 1000 judges across Serbia to prepare them to adjudicate future whistleblowing cases once the law enters into force on June 5, 2015.