Joined Cases C-608/22 and C-609/22, Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl and Others (Afghan women): Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 4 October 2024 (requests for a preliminary ruling from the Verwaltungsgerichtshof – Austria) – AH (C-608/22), FN (C-609/22) v Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl (References for a preliminary ruling – Area of freedom, security and justice – Common asylum policy – Directive 2011/95/EU – Conditions that must be fulfilled by third-country nationals in order to be granted refugee status – Article 2(d) and (e) – Concept of act of persecution – Level of seriousness required – Article 9 – Sufficiently severe accumulation of measures that discriminate against women – Article 9(1)(b) – Types of acts of persecution – Article 9(2) – Assessment of applications for international protection – Article 4(3) – Obligation to carry out an individual assessment – Scope)
Date: 2024-10-04
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: asylum seeker, domestic violence, forced marriage, foreign national, freedom of self-determination, persecution, refugee, right of asylum, sexual discrimination, sexual violence








C_202407006EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2024/7006


2.12.2024






Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 4 October 2024 (requests for a preliminary ruling from the Verwaltungsgerichtshof – Austria) – AH (C-608/22), FN (C-609/22) v Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl


(Joined Cases C-608/22 and C-609/22,
                (1)
Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl and Others (Afghan women))

(References for a preliminary ruling - Area of freedom, security and justice - Common asylum policy - Directive 2011/95/EU - Conditions that must be fulfilled by third-country nationals in order to be granted refugee status - Article 2(d) and (e) - Concept of ‘act of persecution’ - Level of seriousness required - Article 9 - Sufficiently severe accumulation of measures that discriminate against women - Article 9(1)(b) - Types of acts of persecution - Article 9(2) - Assessment of applications for international protection - Article 4(3) - Obligation to carry out an individual assessment - Scope)
(C/2024/7006)
Language of the case: German

Referring court

Verwaltungsgerichtshof

Parties to the main proceedings


Appellants on a point of law: AH (C-608/22), FN (C-609/22)

Respondent: Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Article 9(1)(b) 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 an accumulation of discriminatory measures in respect of women – consisting, inter alia, in depriving them of any legal protection against gender-based and domestic violence and forced marriage, requiring them to cover their entire body and face, restricting their access to healthcare and freedom of movement, prohibiting them from engaging in gainful employment or limiting the extent to which they can do so, prohibiting their access to education, prohibiting them from taking part in sports and excluding them from political life – adopted or tolerated by an ‘actor of persecution’ within the meaning of Article 6 of that directive comes within the concept of ‘act of persecution’, since those measures, by their cumulative effect, undermine human dignity as guaranteed by Article 1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.










2.


Article 4(3) of Directive 2011/95
must be interpreted as not requiring the competent national authority – in order to determine whether, having regard to the conditions in a woman’s country of origin at the time of the assessment of her application for international protection, the discriminatory measures to which she has been or could be exposed to in that country amount to acts of persecution within the meaning of Article 9(1) of that directive – to take into consideration, in the individual assessment of her application for the purposes of Article 2(h) of that directive, factors particular to her personal circumstances other than those relating to her gender or nationality.






(1)  
            OJ C 15, 16.1.2023.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/7006/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)