Case C-125/22, Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (Concept of serious harm): Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 9 November 2023 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Rechtbank Den Haag, zittingsplaats ’s-Hertogenbosch — Netherlands) — X, Y, their six minor children v Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (Reference for a preliminary ruling — Common policy on asylum and subsidiary protection — Directive 2011/95/EU — Article 15 — Conditions for granting subsidiary protection — Taking into account of factors relating to the applicant’s individual position and personal circumstances and to the general situation in the country of origin — Humanitarian situation)
Date: 2023-11-09
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: aid to refugees, asylum seeker, cruel and degrading treatment, foreign national, humanitarian crisis, right of asylum








C_202400466EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
Series C













C/2024/466


3.1.2024





Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 9 November 2023 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Rechtbank Den Haag, zittingsplaats ’s-Hertogenbosch — Netherlands) — X, Y, their six minor children v Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid
(Case C-125/22, (1) Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (Concept of serious harm))
(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Common policy on asylum and subsidiary protection - Directive 2011/95/EU - Article 15 - Conditions for granting subsidiary protection - Taking into account of factors relating to the applicant’s individual position and personal circumstances and to the general situation in the country of origin - Humanitarian situation)
(C/2024/466)
Language of the case: Dutch

Referring court

Rechtbank Den Haag, zittingsplaats ’s-Hertogenbosch

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicants: X, Y, their six minor children

Defendant: Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Article 15 of Directive 2011/95/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on standards for the qualification of third-country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection, for a uniform status for refugees or for persons eligible for subsidiary protection, and for the content of the protection granted,
must be interpreted as meaning that in order to determine whether an applicant for international protection is eligible for subsidiary protection, the competent national authority must examine all the relevant factors, relating both to the individual position and personal circumstances of the applicant and to the general situation in the country of origin, before identifying the type of serious harm that those factors may potentially substantiate.










2.


Article 15(c) of Directive 2011/95
must be interpreted as meaning that in order to assess whether there is a real risk of suffering a type of serious harm as defined in that provision, the competent national authority must be able to take account of factors relating to the individual position and personal circumstances of the applicant other than the mere fact of coming from an area of a given country where ‘the most extreme cases of general violence’, within the meaning of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of 17 July 2008, NA. v. the United Kingdom (CE:ECHR:2008:0717JUD002590407, § 115), occur.










3.


Article 15(b) of Directive 2011/95
must be interpreted as meaning that the intensity of the indiscriminate violence occurring in the applicant’s country of origin is not capable of weakening the requirement of individualisation of the serious harm defined in that provision.






(1)  
            OJ C 213, 30.5.2022.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/466/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)