Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection

Legal and Political Research Vol 11, N°01, June (2026) / 601-613 Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection حماية المبل ائم الفسادغين عن جر ياإلدار ة الت: بين ضرور بليغ وضمان الحماية Malika Makhloufi 1* Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Mouloud Mammeri University, Tizi ouzou- Algeria [email protected] Date of send: 01/03/2026 Date of acceptance:03/06/2026 Date of publication ;11/06/2026 ـ ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ ـــــــــــــــ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ ــــــ Abstract : Corruption crimes have become so widespread that they are difficult to track due to their clandestine nature, global reach, and organized structure. They are planned in one country, executed in another, and their proceeds are reaped in a third. This has necessitated international intervention to combat them within the framework of international conventions, including the 2003 Convention Against Corruption. Having ratified this convention in 2004, and in fulfillment of its international obligations and its desire to combat corruption particularly administrative corruption, the Algerian legislature intervened through Law No. 06-01 on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption, employing various mechanisms. Given that whistleblowing to the relevant authorities is the most effective mechanism and mandatory for uncovering these crimes, the protection of the whistleblower from any threat is necessary. Hence, the importance of this topic lies in examining the legal guarantees for whistleblower protection, assessing their seriousness and adequacy, and arriving at a set of conclusions and recommendations. Keywords : Reporting, Corruption crimes, Legal protection, Obstacles. * Corresponding author

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Malika Makhloufi Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection 602 Introduction The International Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption clarified that corruption is a global phenomenon that falls under transnational organized crime. This declaration is a clear indication of the need for the international community to join forces to combat it. In light of the developments in anti-corruption mechanisms worldwide, whistleblowing has become one of the most important basic procedures adopted by countries to uncover it, especially given the growing awareness in society of the citizen’s role in combating crime. Algeria is one of the first countries to ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption, and therefore it recognized the importance of whistleblowing, so it included it in its legal system for combating corruption in Law No. 06-01 on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption, amended and supplemented, and institutionalized it through the establishment of the Central Office for the Suppression of Corruption and the High Authority for Transparency, Prevention and Combating of Corruption, which was entrusted with the task of receiving and processing reports related to acts of corruption. Consequently, the importance of the issue of protecting whistleblowers of corruption crimes becomes apparent, considering that reporting is the only mechanism for revealing its manifestations. It plays a fundamental role in revealing corruption and corrupt individuals, especially in the administrative environment, as it is the fertile ground for corruption crimes in all their manifestations. This requires, in return for this reporting, providing legal protection for whistleblowers and those in similar circumstances to ensure that they are not subjected to any intimidation, threat, or retaliation. Therefore, we raise the following question : Is the protection enshrined by the Algerian legislator for whistleblowers of administrative corruption crimes sufficient to protect them from the perpetrators, or does the matter require serious and effective guarantees ? To address the problem raised, we adopted the descriptive-analytical approach by analyzing the legal texts related to the subject, particularly Law No. 06-01 on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption, and the Code of Criminal Procedure. The study was divided into two main sections. The first one related to the legal framework for protecting whistleblowers of administrative corruption crimes, and the second one to the scope of this protection and the obstacles that hinder its implementation. Firstly :The legal framework for protecting whistleblowers of administrative corruption crimes Reporting is the only procedure that puts corruption cases in the hands of the concerned authorities. Therefore, the Algerian legislator considered it a mandatory procedure for everyone who knows about it, subject to judicial prosecution. However, on the other hand, he did not specify who is considered a whistleblower (1) who submits his report (2).

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Malika Makhloufi Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection 603 1. The concept of whisleblowing in administrative corruption crimes Whistleblowing is considered the first procedural step in which the competent authorities begin their task of investigating the reported incidents and collecting evidence in order to reach the perpetrators. Due to the importance of this procedure, it is necessary to define it (1.1) while identifying the persons who are considered to be the reporter (1.2). 1.1. Defining whistleblowing The Algerian legislator does not define whistleblowing in corruption crimes1, but rather suffices to define what is meant by official whistleblowing that is considered valid by the judicial authorities. In Article 46 of the Code of Civil and Administrative Procedures, he stated that it is the reporting that is done by virtue of a report prepared by the judicial officer, and then he noted that it may relate to a judicial contract, order, ruling or decision2. However, since the term ''whistleblowing'' is one of the equivalents for the term ''combating corruption'' and preventing the implementation of its schemes3, it is defined as the behaviour that allows the competent authorities to become aware of a corruption incident, or it is an action taken by someone to publicly disclose a specific crime4. Transparency International defined it as the reporting by a natural or legal person of legal violations to the competent body for receiving reports5. As for the Algerian legislator, he used the term ''whistleblowing'' within the framework of Article 47 of Law No. 06-01 amended and supplemented6, which is the same term adopted by Article 33 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption7. 1.2. The whistleblowers covered by legal protection Despite the importance of whistleblowers in combating corruption crimes, the International Convention did not define them, leaving the matter of defining them to national legal texts. However, it is noted that the Algerian legislator, despite acknowledging the importance of reporting and including it within the legislative and institutional system for combating corruption, neglected to define and specify who is considered a whistleblower. Does he mean all citizens, or only employees ? Especially since Article 45 of the Law on the Prevention of Corruption has precisely defined some of the persons covered by protection, namely witnesses, experts, victims, their family members, and all other persons closely related to them. Strangely in this matter, by referring to the text of Article 47 of Law 06-01, we find that the Algerian legislator has adopted the mandatory nature with regard to whistleblowing in corruption crimes, as it punishes with imprisonment and a financial fine any person who knows by virtue of his profession or job about the occurrence of a crime stipulated in this law and does not report it to the competent authorities. This text leads us to ask a question about the extent to which they benefit from the protection stipulated in Article 45 of the same law, and we may also consider it a contradiction with the duty of professional secrecy stipulated in Article 48 of the Public Service Law.

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Malika Makhloufi Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection 604 Therefore, it can be said that the whistleblower is any person entrusted with reporting criminal incidents, without whom it is difficult to discover them8. Given its importance in the context of combating corruption crimes, it is the same whether it is a natural or legal person, an ordinary person or a public employee. What is important is that the report is made of his own free will without pressure or threat, and that his report contributed to uncovering the crime with the Supreme Authority for Transparency, as they are the ones who receive the reports. 2.The legal basis for protecting whistleblowers of administrative corruption crimes Most of the preambles of international agreements have focused on the whistleblowing procedure as an important mechanism for combating corruption crimes (2.1), and have urged the States Parties to adopt and regulate it in their domestic laws, similar to the Algerian State, where the legislator has regulated it in the Law on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption (2.2). 2.1. Protecting whistleblowers in administrative corruption crimes from the perspective of international agreements Whistleblowers against corruption crimes have been granted international protection which reflects a clear determination to empower this group with proactive protective measures that safeguard them from all potential risks they may face due to their statements before the criminal justice system9. This protection has emerged through a set of international and regional agreements. At the international level, Article 24 of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) stipulates a set of guarantees and measures necessary to ensure effective protection for whistleblowers from any possible threat or retaliation when they give testimony during the stages of the proceedings regarding certain crimes identified by Articles from 5 to 8 of the same Convention, such as participation in an organized criminal group, crimes of laundering the proceeds of corruption, and obstruction of justice10. In the same context, Article 33 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) of 2003 urged States Parties to adopt appropriate measures in their domestic legal system and within their existing means to provide effective protection for whistleblowers, their families and any person associated with them who is threatened with possible retaliation or intimidation, with the aim of encouraging whistleblowing in corruption as one of its primary objectives. In this context, Article 38 of the agreement included several forms of encouragement for uncovering and reporting corruption crimes, whether at the stage of investigation or inquiry, including : - Working to adopt programs that guarantee the protection of witnesses, experts and victims, such as changing their place of residence, not disclosing information related to their identity and their place of residence, as well as the possibility of providing testimony using remote conferencing technology.

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Malika Makhloufi Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection 605 - Emphasizing the need to achieve and enhance cooperation between the investigative and evidentiary authorities by taking the initiative to inform the relevant authorities whenever there are reasonable grounds to believe that one of the criminal acts cited in the Convention has been committed, and cooperating in providing and exchanging all necessary information to the relevant authorities upon their request. - Article 39 of the same agreement also stipulated special measures to encourage cooperation between national authorities concerned with investigating and prosecuting corruption criminals and some sensitive sectors, including financial institutions. - Granting defendants who cooperate in uncovering corruption crimes the same protection granted to witnesses in order to counter the secrecy and concealment that characterize corruption crimes. Among the international agreements that also paid attention to the protection of whistleblowers is the Convention against Torture of 1984, which obliged in its Article 13 all States Parties to take the necessary measures to ensure the protection of witnesses from all forms of ill-treatment because of their testimony before the judicial authorities11. On the Arab level, some agreements have included clauses to protect whistleblowers, such as the Arab Convention for Combating Terrorism signed in Cairo in 1998, which stipulated in its Article (37) the necessity for the requesting countries to take all necessary measures and procedures to protect the witness from any action that may expose him and his family to violence, threats and revenge12. This is the same objective set by the Arab Convention against Corruption of 2010, which titled Article 14 ''Protection of Witnesses, Whistleblowers, Experts and Victims'', obligating its member states to provide protection for them13, and the African Union Convention against Corruption, in accordance with the text of Article 9 thereof14. 2.2. Protecting whistleblowers from the perspective of national laws In line with international obligations to combat corruption, particularly with regard to encouraging and protecting whistleblowers, the Algerian legislator has established a legal framework to provide various protection measures for this category. This began with the text of Article 236 of the Penal Code, which states that anyone who promises, gives, exerts pressure, transgresses, manipulates, or deceives to induce others to make false statements for the purpose of claiming or defending before judicial authorities shall be punished by imprisonment. Then came the text of Article 45 of the Law on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption, which stipulated a penalty for any person who resorts to revenge, intimidation, or threats in any way or form against whistleblowers or their family members. With the issuance of Law No. 15-02 amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, the legislator added a sixth chapter in the first section entitled ''Protection of Witnesses, Experts and Victims'', which included ten articles that frame this protection to include all those who report crimes without exception15. This was

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Malika Makhloufi Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection 606 reaffirmed in the sixth chapter of the second section of the Code of Criminal Procedure No. 25-14 entitled ''On the Protection of Witnesses, Experts, Civil Claimants, Victims and Civil Parties Reporting Crimes'', where the article clarified the persons covered by protection as well as the protection measures16. Secondly : The scope of protection for whistleblowers of administrative corruption crimes and the obstacles to its implementation Given that whistleblowers provide invaluable services to society and justice by reporting corruption crimes and exposing corrupt individuals, it was incumbent upon the Algerian legislator to surround them with a set of protection measures in accordance with international conventions. The whistleblower needs security and safety from any threat or retaliation against him, his family, and his property. He also needs compensation in the event of an attack against him (1). However, despite the importance of these guarantees, they remain incomplete and ineffective for many reasons (2). 1.Guarantees for the protection of whistleblowers of administrative corruption crimes The Algerian legislator responded to some provisions of the international convention regarding the protection of whistleblowers of corruption crimes and their families by stipulating a set of guarantees of an objective nature (1.1), procedural nature (1.2) and non-procedural nature (1.3). 1.1.Objective guarantees for the protection of whistleblowers of administrative corruption crimes International conventions have focused on protecting whistleblowers and those in similar positions regarding corruption crimes, given their connection to organized crime and the importance of reporting in uncovering them17. Articles 22 and 23 of the Convention against Corruption stipulate that each State Party shall take appropriate measures in accordance with its domestic law and within its capabilities to protect witnesses, experts, and their relatives who testify about acts of corruption. This is the same protection that the Algerian legislator has approved, as it stipulated it in the Law on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption and the Code of Criminal Procedure. Article 138 of the Code of Criminal Procedure punishes with imprisonment from one to five years and a fine of 100,000 DZD to 500,000 DZD anyone who discloses the identity or address of persons covered by protection in Article 128 of the same law, including the witness, the victim, the expert, the civil plaintiffs and informants. Article 236 of the Penal Code also stipulates the crime of enticing a witness in the interest of justice, such as the perpetrator using promises, gifts, presents, pressure, threats, or aggression to induce him to make false statements18, where the person is punished with imprisonment from one to three years and a fine of 500 to 2000 DZD19.

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Malika Makhloufi Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection 607 In order to strengthen the scope of protection for whistleblowers, Article 45 of the Corruption Law punishes with imprisonment from 6 months to 5 years and a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 DZD any person who resorts to revenge, intimidation or threats against whistleblowers of corruption acts or their families. 1.2. Procedural guarantees for the protection of whistleblowers of administrative corruption crimes The procedural protections stipulated in Articles from 132 to 136 of the Code of Criminal Procedure are defined as follows: - The identity of the whistleblower may not be disclosed, or a pseudonym may be used, in the investigation and follow-up documents of the reported case. This can be achieved by altering personal data, such as changing their name and surname to letters or numbers, to hinder their identification. - The whistleblower's actual personal address may not be provided, but the address of the competent judicial police station or the judicial authority handling the case may be provided instead. - The identity of whistleblowers and their families must be kept in a special file maintained by the Public Prosecutor. - The whistleblower must receive summonses through the Public Prosecutor's Office exclusively. - Maintaining the confidentiality of the witness’s identity, with the possibility of hearing him via video conference20, while taking care to disguise his voice and image, especially if he resides in another country. This modern procedure is considered among the most important solutions that support the fight against corruption, as whistleblowers can submit their reports without risks21. 1.3. Non-procedural protection for whistleblowers of administrative corruption crimes In addition to procedural protections, Article 129 of the aforementioned law includes a set of non-procedural guarantees of a security nature for whistleblowers and those considered as such, as well as their relatives. These guarantees are as follows: - Counseling information related to the whistleblower. - Providing him with a dedicated telephone number to facilitate contact by security services. - Ensuring serious protection for him and his relatives, if necessary. - Installing preventative surveillance equipment in his residence. - Recording all calls he receives or makes. - Relocating the whistleblower to another location. - Providing him with social or financial assistance. - Detaining him, if necessary, in a special wing with its own security measures. It is noteworthy that the whistleblower protection program established by the Algerian legislator in the new Code of Criminal Procedure did not deviate from the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. However, it is

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Malika Makhloufi Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection 608 notable that the legislator did not guarantee civil protection (the right to compensation) for material or moral damages that the whistleblower or one of his relatives may suffer in his body or property as a result of reporting acts of corruption to the relevant authorities. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, it also neglected to establish protection or a guarantee for the employee who reports corruption crimes in his administrative environment, especially if the report is against an official of a higher rank, as he may issue a threat or act arbitrarily, which affects his career path, such as disciplining him without cause as revenge. Therefore, special legal protection should be established for this category, because through them, the concerned authorities can uncover many cases of administrative and financial corruption that other citizens do not know about, by virtue of their status as employees, which motivates them to report without hesitation or fear. 2. The challenges facing whistleblowing of administrative corruption crimes Despite the importance of whistleblowing as a mechanism for uncovering corruption crimes for the competent authorities, its effectiveness in the fight against corruption remains limited due to the absence of a special law regulating this mechanism (2.1), the incompatibility of the law on preventing and combating corruption with the provisions of anti-corruption agreements (2.2), the lack of political will to activate the mechanism for whistleblowing (2.3), and finally the inadequacy of the guarantees provided to whistleblowers (2.4). 2.1. The absence of a specific legal text regulating the mechanism for whistleblowing corruption crimes Whistleblowing is considered one of the mechanisms that has proved its effectiveness in uncovering and exposing corruption cases in the public and private sectors22, and at the international and domestic levels. This highlights the importance of civil society participation in combating it. Therefore, credit is due to the development of this mechanism and the clarification of its importance to anti- corruption agreements that included clauses encouraging its practice, and they also urged their member states to pay attention to it under their domestic laws. By referring to the laws of some countries, we find that they have paid attention to and regulated the whistleblowing mechanism in a strict manner, such as the French23 and Tunisian24 legislation, which has dedicated a special law that regulates it, whether in terms of the procedures for its practice or in terms of how to protect whistleblowers, unlike the Algerian legislation, which included it within the law on the prevention and combating of corruption and the law of criminal procedures through vague and limited texts. 2.2. The law on preventing and combating corruption is inconsistent with the provisions of anti-corruption agreements Article 45 of the Law on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption punishes any person who resorts to revenge, intimidation, or threats in any way or form against

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Malika Makhloufi Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection 609 witnesses, experts, victims, whistleblowers, their family members, and other persons closely related to them. It is noticed that this article explicitly includes whistleblowers with the category of witness, expert, and victim ; whereas, the text of Article 33 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption specifically calls upon States Parties to take the necessary measures to provide protection for whistleblowers. 2.3. Lack of political will to activate the mechanism for whistleblowing corruption crimes The first observation that can be made to the Algerian legislator is his reliance on ''selective imitation'' in drafting the provisions of the Law on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption in compliance with the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. In many matters, he reformulated the same texts contained in this Convention, while in other matters he abandoned texts and clauses that could increase the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures, such as the mechanism for whistleblowing corruption crimes. Therefore, the lack of political will to activate the mechanism for reporting corruption and protecting whistleblowers is evident in the failure to comply with the provisions of the Convention. It would have been more appropriate for the legislator to incorporate the provisions contained therein and those contained in the Arab and African Conventions on Combating Corruption related to the protection of whistleblowers by amending Law No. 06-01 immediately after Algeria ratified the Arab Convention on Combating Corruption in 2014. This is especially important with regard to encouraging whistleblowers to expose acts of corruption by taking the necessary measures and procedures to protect them, as stipulated in Article 14 of the Convention itself25, or at least to review them when the new Code of Criminal Procedure is issued by addressing the shortcomings that limit its effectiveness. 2.4. Weak guarantees for whistleblowers of corruption crimes Reporting corruption crimes is both a right and a duty26. It is a duty for every individual to disclose criminal facts that he knows about, and he is punished for refusing to report. It is a right that guarantees physical and material protection for him and his relatives from any threat and revenge27. However, when we refer to the protection provisions imposed by the Algerian legislator for whistleblowers in Law No. 06-01, we find that they are merely simple procedures that do not amount to full protection for the whistleblower and those in similar circumstances. The procedure for reporting acts of corruption still suffers from several constraints and challenges that may limit its effectiveness, whether in terms of its procedures28, the number of reports directed to the High Authority for Transparency, or the level of citizens’ response to it. Threats and fear still affect them, which requires the legislator to adopt effective legal and regulatory frameworks capable of motivating citizens to report corruption crimes while guaranteeing their protection.

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Malika Makhloufi Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection 610 Conclusion In conclusion, this research paper indicates that whistleblowing is the first step taken by the High Authority for Transparency and Anti-Corruption to investigate reported incidents, gather evidence, and prosecute perpetrators. It is the most effective mechanism for combating corruption in general and administrative corruption in particular. Therefore, relevant international agreements have provided guarantees for whistleblowers and those in similar positions to protect them from any threat or infringement. The Algerian legislator has adopted this position by stipulating a set of legal and procedural guarantees to protect them in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Law on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption, in addition to establishing a special body to receive their reports called the "Reports and Notifications Processing Unit" under the authority of the High Authority for Transparency and Anti-Corruption. However, these guarantees remain insufficient to protect whistleblowers, and they lack an effective confrontation with the phenomenon of corruption. Evidence of this is the small number of reports filed with the High Authority for Transparency, and the decline in the role of the witness and the victim in assisting the judiciary regarding serious cases, especially crimes of theft, embezzlement, public procurement, civil service, taxes and customs under the weight of fear of revenge. This is in addition to the increasing number of corruption cases in various fields and the expansion of their scope to include the private sector. Based on the findings, the following recommendations and suggestions can be made within this framework, which we believe may encourage individuals to report administrative corruption crimes : - It is necessary to reconsider the general policy for combating corruption by including special and detailed provisions relating to reporting corruption in the public and private sectors, and to dedicate measures to protecting whistleblowers and urging them to report acts of corruption. This is not only in respect of the obligations arising from Algeria’s ratification of the various anti-corruption agreements, but also to ensure an effective confrontation of this serious phenomenon. - We recommend creating a digital platform to receive reports of administrative corruption while ensuring the confidentiality of the reports and the whistleblowers. - Encouraging individuals to report corruption crimes without fear or hesitation, while providing them with full protection. - The need to protect public employees who report acts of corruption committed in their work environment, especially through administrative protection. - Dedicating legal texts that guarantee compensation for whistleblowers for any material or moral damage inflicted on them and their families as a result of their reporting. - Integrating the principles of professional ethics and integrity into the training and development programs for public administration employees, and motivating them to respect the law and serve the public interest.

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Malika Makhloufi Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection 611 - Digitizing administrative services and public transactions to reduce opportunities for bribery and embezzlement. - Ensuring that corrupt individuals do not escape punishment by holding accountable anyone proven to be involved in corruption cases, regardless of their position or status. - It is necessary to put in place effective guarantees to protect whistleblowers from retaliation by perpetrators, provided that the Algerian legislator enacts a special law for whistleblowers of corruption crimes, similar to the legal systems of countries known for the effectiveness of their legislative framework in this field, such as Tunisia, which has enacted a special law for this purpose. Margins: 1- ''Corruption'' is a global phenomenon that harms the foundations of national and international society as a whole. Legal scholars agree that corruption is any act or omission committed intentionally and criminalized by law. It is of two types : petty corruption, which is limited to violations committed by low-level employees, and grand, organized corruption, which is practiced by high-ranking officials responsible for various sectors. These officials obtain enormous revenues through public contracts, taxes, and customs duties, thus impacting national economies and development. For further details on this concept, See : - Leslie Holmes, Corruption : A Very Short Introduction, 1st Ed. 2015, Oxford University, UK. and Sharon Eicher, Introduction : What Corruption is and Why it Matters, Corruption in International Business (Corporate Social Responsibility), 2009, GOWER e-BOOK, UK. P.4. 2- Law n° 08-09 of February 26, 2008, containing the Code of Civil and Administrative Procedure, Official Journal n° 21 of April 23, 2008, amended and supplemented by Law n° 22-13 of July 12, 2022, Official Journal n° 48 of July 17, 2022. 3- Daniel Santoro, Manohar Kumar, Speaking Truth to Power- A Theory of Whistleblowing, Philosophy and Politics- Critical Explorations, Vol.6, 2018, Springer International Publishing, p.38. Iheb Chalouat, Carlos Carrion-Crespo and Margherita Licata, Law and practice on protecting whistleblowers in the public and financial services sectors, International Labour Organization 2019, Geneva, P6. 4- Daniel Santoro, Manohar Kumar, Op.cit. p.38. 5- Available on : https://www.transparency.org/en/our-priorities/whistleblower-protection 6- Law n° 06-01 of February 20, 2006, relating to the prevention and combating of corruption, Official Journal n° 14 of March 8, 2006, supplemented by Law n° 10-05 of August 26, 2010, Official Journal n° 50 of September 1, 2010, amended and supplemented by Law n° 11-15, of August 2, 2011, Official Journal n° 44 of August 10, 2011. 7- The United Nations Convention against Corruption, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 31 October 2003, was ratified by Algeria with reservations by Presidential Decree n° 04-128 of April 19, 2004, Official Journal n° 26 of April 25, 2004. 8- Abdelmajid Lakhdari, Fatima Ben Djeddou, ''Legal Protection of Witnesses, Experts, whistlblowers and Victims'', Journal of Legal and Political Sciences, Vol. 11, n° 02, 2020, p. 185. 9- David Schultz and Khachik Harutyunyan, Combating corruption : The development of whistleblowing laws in the United States, Europe and Armenia, International Comparative Jurisprudence, Volume 1, n° 2, December 2015, p.87. 10- United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), Available on : https://www.unodc.org 11- Convention against Torture of the year 1984, Available on : https://www.ohchr.org

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Malika Makhloufi Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection 612 12- Arab Convention for Combating Terrorism of the year 1998, Available on : https://www.unodc.org 13- The Arab Convention Against Corruption, signed in Cairo on December 21, 2010, was ratified by Algeria by Presidential Decree n° 14-249 of September 8, 2014, Official Journal n° 54 of December 21, 2014. 14- The African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption, adopted in Maputo on July 11, 2003, was ratified by Algeria by Presidential Decree n° 06-137 of April 10, 2006, Official Journal n° 24 April 16, 2006. See also the text of the Convention available on: www.africa- union.org 15- Hassina Charoun, Fatima Gaffaf, ''The Legal System for the Protection of Witnesses and Whistleblowers in Algerian Legislation'', Journal of Legal Studies and Research, Vol. 2, n° 1, 2017, p. 49. 16- Law n° 25-14 of August 03, 2025, includes the Code of Criminal Procedure, Official Journal n° 54, of August 13, 2025. 17- Djilali Mainou, ''Legal Protection of Whistleblowers of Corruption Crimes : A Study in International Conventions and Arab Legislations'', Police Thinker Magazine, Vol. 28, n° 108, 2019, p. 121. 18- Order n° 66-156 of June 8, 1966, containing the Penal Code, Official Journal n° 49 of June 11, 1966, amended and supplemented by Law n° 24-06 of April 28, 2024, Official Journal n° 30 of April 30, 2024. 19- Regarding this crime, see : Nasr al-Din al-Ayeb, ''Witness Protection as a Mechanism for the Proper Administration of Justice in Algerian Legislation'', Afaq Ilmiya Journal, Vol. 13, n° 02, 2021, p. 485. 20- Eric T. Bellone, Videoconferencing in the Courts : An Exploratory Study of Videoconferencing Impact on the Attorney-Client Relationship in Massachusetts, In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the field of Law and Public Policy-2015, the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, p.11. And Evert-Jan van der Vlis, Videoconferencing in criminal proceedings, Ministry of Security and Justice, The Hague, p.12. 21- There are several internet-based systems that can be relied upon for reporting corruption crimes, such as GlobaLeaks, an open-source system specifically designed to enable the public to report acts of corruption securely and confidentially. Created by the Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights, the program deletes all data once a user has finished reporting. Another program, SecureDrop, also created by the same center, has become widely used in the media field. In addition, there are other modern systems like blockchain and artificial intelligence - very modern technologies with the ability to learn and predict. All of these systems have proved their effectiveness in combating corruption in some countries. For more information on these systems, see : Isabelle Adam and Mihály Fazekas, Are emerging technologies helping win the fight against corruption in developing countries ? Background Paper Series ; n° 21. Oxford, UK, p.9. And Matthew Jenkins, Overview of whistleblowing software, Transparency International, U4 Anti- Corruption Resource Centre, April 14, 2020, p.9. 22- Maria Chiara Vinciguerra, Whistleblower Protection Legislation and Corruption, Working Paper n° 52, European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, November 2018, P6. Also : David Schultz and Khachik Harutyunyan, Op.cit. p.89. 23- Law n° 2016-1691 of December 9, 2016 relating to the transparency, to the fight against corruption and the modernization of the economic world, Official Journal n° 02 of December 10, 2016. Available on : https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr

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Malika Makhloufi Whistleblower Protection in Administrative Corruption Crimes: Between the Necessity of Reporting and the Guarantee of Protection 613 24- Basic Law n° 10 of March 7, 2017, relating to reporting corruption and protecting whistleblowers, Official Journal of the Republic of Tunisia, n° 20 of March 10, 2017. 25- See : Article 14 of the Arab Convention against Corruption, mentioned above. 26- Refer to Article 47 of Law n° 06-01, as amended and supplemented. 27- Maria Chiara Vinciguerra, Op.cit. p.5. 28- See : Reporting procedures in Article 6 of Law n° 22-08 of May 5, 2022, which defines the organization of the Supreme Authority for Transparency, Prevention and Combating of Corruption, Official Journal n° 32 of May 14, 2022.

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