Written question asked by David Cairns (Labour) on Friday, 25 February 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 1 March 2011. It was answered by Alistair Burt (Conservative) on Friday, 4 March 2011 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Syria: Human Rights

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has made to his Syrian counterpart on Syria's human rights record.

Answer: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary raised Syria's human rights record with both President Assad and Foreign Minister Muallem during his visit to Damascus in January 2011.We also continue to raise human rights issues at every available opportunity, at both ministerial and official level, with the Syrian authorities as demonstrated by my recent public statement on the imprisonment of the 19 year old Syrian blogger, Tal al-Mallouhi. We also look to increase the impact of our statements by working closely with EU partners in securing EU statements on human rights such as recent statements on Tal al-Mallouhi and human rights defender, Muhannad al-Hassani.

Secondary information