Case summaries
When reaching a decision, the Defendant should have protected the best interest of the child. Taking into account the fact that the Applicant is a minor and providing legal representation for a minor applicant, are necessary elements in the process of demonstrating and establishing the facts. The principle of protecting the best interest of the child has to be enforced when assessing the risk that the absolute rights of the child might be violated if he is returned to his country of origin and needs to be reflected in the Defendant’s burden of proof as well as in the rules and standards of evidence (in relation to subsidiary protection).
The Defendant should already have started searching for parents during the procedure for international protection and not only once the procedure for removing the child from the state has begun.
Threats and violence against a person’s family members can be considered as acts of persecution where that person is connected to the facts which previously led to the violence..
The Plaintiff needs to state all circumstances known to him in relation to his persecution; however he does not need to establish a material and legal connection between the persecution and the reasons for persecution.
The fact that somebody is a child in Afghanistan can mean that he belongs to particular social group.