On June 23, 2015, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution on “Improving the Protection of Whistle-Blowers.”  In the resolution, the Council “stresses the importance of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, upholding the right to privacy, freedom of speech and the protection of whistle-blowers, including in the fields of national security and intelligence.”  Specifically, the resolution calls on member states to “enact whistle-blower protection laws also covering employees of national security or intelligence services and of private firms working in this field; . . . grant asylum, as far as possible under national law, to whistle-blowers threatened by retaliation in their home countries, provided their disclosures qualify for protection under the principles advocated by the Assembly; . . . [and] agree on a binding legal instrument (convention) on whistle-blower protection . . . .”  According to the press release, the Council specifically took note of the situation of whistle-blower Edward Snowden and called on “the United States of America to allow Mr Edward Snowden to return without fear of criminal prosecution under conditions that would not allow him to raise the public interest defence.”