Yesterday was World Whistleblower Day, the observance of which was to raise awareness of the role of whistleblowers in fighting corruption and maintaining national security. The uncovering of some of the world’s biggest corruption scandals was largely due to genuinely concerned individuals blowing the whistle. According to whistleblowerday.org, ‘[w]whistleblowers are the true guardians of truth and justice in our society, our communities and our workplaces. They are regular citizens, regular workers, regular people who take matters into their own hands to expose secretive acts of crime and corruption’. These individuals need protection against retaliation of one kind or another. Last March, the European Union issued an EU directive on the protection of whistleblowers. All EU Member States are required to incorporate the contents of the Directive into their national laws.
Some good news for climate change advocates. The British government amended its legislation on climate change to set 2050 as the target year for the elimination of net emissions of greenhouse gases, making it the first among the G7 countries. Norway’s parliament also voted to require its sovereign wealth fund to divest from fossil-fuel companies. Over $10 billion of stocks in these companies will be sold off. However, companies such as British Petroleum and Shell that have invested heavily in clean energy technologies are unaffected. (See ‘Economist’ of 15-21 June 2019 and https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/448445-norway-to-sell-off-billions-in-fossil-fuel-stocks.)
Last Tuesday, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruled that the no confidence motion of 21 December 2018 was validly passed in the National Assembly, and that the process used to appoint the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) was flawed and unconstitutional. We had predicted these two outcomes based on our understanding of the relevant sections of the Constitution, our own reasoning, the arguments presented to the CCJ, and the related comments of the judges.
