Jafar Alshayeb, a human rights activist, participated in the Conference of Promoting Dialogue and Strengthening Freedom of Association in the Middle East and North Africa which was held by the Club of Madrid in Barcelona, Spain, in April 19th-20th, 2009. A group of members at the Club of Madrid, experts in democratic transformation issues, human rights activists and civilians from the Middle east participated in this conference.

 This project which is sponsored by the Club of Madrid aims to promote freedom of association and assembly in the Arab region through conducting studies on related laws and legislations in order to set contexts for dialogue between official authorities and civil society institutions over this topic. In the first phase of this project, the Club of Madrid takes four Arab countries; Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain.

 The conference discussed the results over the issue of freedom of association and democratic transformation in Spain from various aspects. It invited many officials, former ministers and members of media, as well as political parties' leaders and social activists to participate in it.

 In the conference, Alshayeb spoke about dialogue experiences in the Arab region over reformative issues, and stressed on the significance of involving different groups in national dialogues as well as activating reform programs. The participants prepared a set of recommendations on approaches for internal dialogue between official and civil society institutions.