Italy - Rome Court, 20 December 2013, No. RG 4627/2010
Keywords:
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Actors of protection
Description
"Actors such as: (a) the State; or (b) parties or organisations, including international organisations, controlling the State or a substantial part of the territory of the State; who take reasonable steps to prevent the persecution or suffering of serious harm, inter alia, by operating an effective legal system for the detection, prosecution and punishment of acts constituting persecution or serious harm, and the applicant has access to such protection." |
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Persecution (acts of)
Description
"Human rights abuses or other serious harm, often, but not always, with a systematic or repetitive element. Per Article 9 of the Qualification Directive, acts of persecution for the purposes of refugee status must: (a) be acts sufficiently serious by their nature or repetition as to constitute a severe violation of basic human rights, in particular the rights from which derogation cannot be made under Article 15(2) of the ECHR; or (b) be an accumulation of various measures, including violations of human rights which is sufficiently severe as to affect an individual in a similar manner as mentioned in (a). This may, inter alia, take the form of: acts of physical or mental violence, including acts of sexual violence; legal, administrative, police and/or judicial measures which are in themselves discriminatory or which are implemented in a discriminatory manner; prosecution or punishment, which is disproportionate or discriminatory; denial of judicial redress resulting in a disproportionate or discriminatory punishment; prosecution or punishment for refusal to perform military service in a conflict, where performing military service would include crimes or acts falling under the exclusion clauses in Article 12(2). " |
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Refugee Status
Description
The recognition by a Member State of a third-country national or stateless person as a refugee. |
Headnote:
Two things are required for recognition of refugee status: the existence of a ground for persecution (whether actual or threatened) and the breakdown of the social bonds between the country of origin and its citizen to the extent that the State is no longer able to guarantee protection.
Facts:
In 2009, a Ghanaian citizen submitted an application for international protection to the Territorial Commission in Rome on the grounds of acts of persecution by his community and his family following his conversion to Christianity and his refusal to carry out the role that his father, an animist priest who had died in 2004, had carried out in traditional rites practised in his village of origin. The application was rejected by the Territorial Commission which held that the conditions for granting recognition had not been met. An appeal was lodged against this decision.
Decision & reasoning:
The Court granted refugee status to the Applicant arguing that the statement that the Applicant had converted to the Christian religion had been proved (he demonstrated that he knew the basics) and that for this reason he had been persecuted by his relatives and by his community of origin. The Court held that the requirements for granting protection had been met because, in addition to there being a ground for persecution, in a case of this kind it is also believable that there had been a breakdown in the social bond between the country of Origin and the Applicant who had, without success, asked for help from the police but had not received any effective protection.
Outcome:
Recognition of refugee status.