Case C-285/12 – Aboubacar Diakité v Commissaire général aux réfugiés et aux apatrides

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Diakite
Respondent/Defendant:Commissaire général aux réfugiés et aux apatrides
Court/s:ECJ
Citation/s:C-285/12
Nature of Proceedings:Preliminary ruling
Judgment Date/s:30 Jan 2014
Judge:CJEU, Fourth Chamber: L. Bay Larsen (Rapporteur), President of the Chamber, K. Lenaerts, Vice-President of the Court, acting as Judge of the Fourth Chamber, M. Safjan, J. Malenovský and A. Prechal, Judges
Category:Refugee Law
Keywords:Protection (Subsidiary), Refugee
Country of Origin:Guinea
URL:http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=147061&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=173363
Geographic Focus:Europe

Facts:The applicant, a native of Guinea, applied twice for asylum and subsidiary protection in Belgium, being unsuccessful on both occasions. The Commissaire Général’s refusal to grant subsidiary protection was based on the finding that there was no situation of indiscriminate violence or armed conflict in the applicant’s country of origin. The applicant appealed against those decisions and the Belgian Conseil … Read More

Principles:

When deciding whether an “internal armed conflict” existed within the meaning of Article 15(c) of the Qualification Directive, an autonomous interpretation was required, independent of the meaning of that concept in the Geneva Conventions.

The usual meaning of that phrase in everyday language was to be considered, account being taken of the context in which it occurred and the purposes of the rules of which it was part. The usual meaning of the phrase in everyday language concerned a situation in which a state’s armed forces confronted one or more armed groups, or in which two or more armed groups confronted each other.

The existence of an internal armed conflict was a cause for granting subsidiary protection only where such confrontations were exceptionally considered to create a serious and individual threat to the life or person of an applicant for subsidiary protection for the purposes of Article 15(c).

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