Speak Up: Empowering Citizens against Corruption

There are many barriers that prevent individuals from speaking up. Public trust in the ability of institutions to deal with corruption is low and reporting channels are often unclear or unreliable. Laws that protect whistleblowers are poorly implemented or non-existent and citizens often do not know their rights or how to effectively exercise them.This report provides examples of how Transparency International has worked with citizens to challenge the assumption that nothing can be done about corruption. Drawing primarily on the experience of seven European Union (EU) countries (the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg) participating in a multi-country project to empower citizens to speak up against corruption and wrongdoing, we highlight how we can work effectively with individuals to break the corruption cycle.14