Kamilla Atmarsson - Våga blåsa i visslan - Juridiska institutionen ...

Executive summary
A whistleblower is a person who informs, warns or otherwise contributes to exposing
irregularities within a company, a public agency or another organization. Whistleblowing is a
way to reduce corruption and dangerous situations, through the disclosure of illegal,
dangerous or unethical behavior conducted by public or private organizations.
To act as a whistleblower is risky. Those who dare to whistle might loose their jobs, be
excluded and ostracized, be prosecuted for violating laws or worker's agreements, and in
extreme cases suffer physical abuse. Thus, a protection for whistleblowers – which ensures
that they have the courage to actually whistle – is required. In Sweden, such protection is not
regulated in any specific law, but provided for in the Constitution, labor law and in the
business industry's self-regulatory codes and policy documents. There are also some European
and international instruments that affect the Swedish legislation.
The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze if a stronger protection for whistleblowers is
called for and, if so, if this should be provided for in a legal act or through self-regulation in
business codes and similar instruments. The findings are that there is a need for an enhanced
whistleblower protection in Sweden, since the current legal regulation does not offer adequate
protection. The best way to go about this is by adopting a uniform legal act which inter alia
ensures whistleblowers the right to anonymous communication channels in both the private
and public sector, stipulates criminal penalties for employers that do not follow these rules,
provides relevant legislative provisions (eg. labor laws and constitutional protection) and
provides for regulatory bodies. The proposed legislation should be supplemented by a self-
regulatory code for the business industry, in which the world business organization ICC may
be appointed as trustee of the code. In addition, the law should be complemented by
regulations on how the public sector's anonymous communication channels be designed and
conducted. By doing so, an anonymous communication channel is always ensured, while the
protection can be tailored to the specific organization's needs and possibilities. In addition, the
protection can be specified in a different way than through legislation which enables it to be
revised without unnecessary delay when a change is warranted.