In this specific case, a Kurdish woman of Turkish nationality requested international protection in Bulgaria. She was forced into marriage but got divorced. She was then threatened by her ex-husband and also by her family of origin and feared being the victim of an “honor crime”.
The ECJ has now ruled that women can be recognized as refugees in these circumstances or can receive subsidiary protection. Bulgaria's judges will now decide on the specific case – but must observe ECJ jurisprudence. Refugee status concerns persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.
Subsidiary protection, in turn, applies to any third-country national who does not meet the conditions for recognition as a refugee, but who has demonstrated reasonable grounds to believe that he or she would run a real risk of suffering serious harm if he or she were to return to the country. your country of origin. country of origin, especially if: they are genuinely at risk of being killed or suffering violence.
ECJ
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) interprets EU law and ensures that it is correctly applied in all Member States. It also decides on disputes between national governments and EU institutions and can be brought before private parties in certain cases.
Women as a “social group”
In this sense, women could be seen as a “social group”. “Consequently, they may be granted refugee status if they are subject to physical or psychological violence, including sexual violence and domestic violence, in their country of origin because of their gender,” the ECJ ruled.
Specifically, when they are actually threatened by a member of their family or community of being killed or suffering other acts of violence due to an apparent violation of cultural, religious or traditional norms. Subsidiary protection may be granted if this requirement is not met, but a woman risks suffering “serious harm” in the home country, such as execution, murder or other inhuman or degrading treatment.
As justification, the ECJ also referred to the 2011 Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. The Istanbul Convention is binding on the EU and recognizes gender-based violence against women. women as a form of persecution. The convention is the first internationally binding instrument to comprehensively combat all forms of violence against women in Europe; the convention entered into force in Austria on 1 August 2014.
Amnesty sees “innovative” decision
The ECJ's decision is “groundbreaking”, Aimee Stuflesser, lawyer and asylum and migration expert at Amnesty International Austria, told ORF.at. “All women affected by gender-based violence have the right to seek asylum and receive protection – this has been clearly stated by the ECJ.”
The clear statement could henceforth serve as a precedent and influence the development of similar jurisprudence in other EU countries or legal areas. “In addition, the decision could also help raise awareness of the need for more comprehensive protection for refugee women and strengthen legal standards with regards to gender-based violence,” Stuflesser continued.
FPÖ sees “dam bursting”
Criticism of the verdict came from the FPÖ. The decision is further proof of “how the ECJ is fueling mass illegal immigration with its jurisprudence, and is a 'break' in the direction of, in effect, all people in the world who are affected by forced marriages or other consequences of archaic cultures in their homeland “to grant us the right to asylum immigration”, said the head of the EU delegation, Harald Vilimsky, and FPÖ security spokesman Hannes Amesbauer.