Ribal Al-Assad, the Director of the ODFS, this week had a meeting with Conservative MP Robert Walter, the leader of the UK’s delegation to the Strasbourg based Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Mr Walter is also treasurer of the British Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Syria. They had a wide ranging discussion about the prospects of democratic reform in Syria and the wider issues concerning the Middle East.

The Council of Europe, created in 1949, now has 47 member nations from across Europe, including all 27 EU member states. The body is responsible for the European Convention on Human Rights and several other conventions concerning democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The intergovernmental body also administers the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Commenting on the meeting, Ribal, said:

“I was delighted and honoured to meet Robert Walter. We had an excellent discussion about the role the UK and the EU can play in helping to promote democratic reform in Syria and ensuring that the regime ends its practice of arbitrary arrests and detentions, and releases all those who have been imprisoned because they were exercising their right to peaceful freedom of expression and association. I look forward to working with him on these issues.”