CJEU – Case No. C-646/21
On June 11, 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union, in Case No. C-646/21, responded to a request for a preliminary ruling from a Dutch judicial authority regarding the interpretation of rules for granting asylum requests.
The case concerned the granting of asylum to two minor Iraqi nationals, born in 2003 and 2005, respectively. The girls arrived in the Netherlands in 2015 and have resided there continuously since then. Their asylum requests were initially denied, prompting them to appeal to the District Court of The Hague.
The minors' representatives argued that due to their long-term residence in the Netherlands, they had adopted "Westernized" norms, values, and behaviors. As women, they consider themselves capable of making their own choices about their lives and futures, "particularly concerning their relationships with men, their marriages, their education, their work, and the formation and expression of their political and religious opinions." They expressed a well-founded fear of being "persecuted if they return to Iraq due to the identity they have forged in the Netherlands, marked by the assimilation of norms, values, and behaviours different from those of their country of origin." Finally, they claimed to belong to a "specific social group" under Article 10(1)(d) of Directive 2011/95.
The preliminary questions focused on whether "Westernized" women could be considered a "specific social group" deserving special protection as refugees.
Initially, the Dutch judicial authority considered that "Westernized women" constituted too heterogeneous a group to be regarded as belonging to a "specific social group."
In its ruling, the CJEU considered, in addition to EU asylum law, the provisions of CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) and the Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence), particularly regarding the enshrinement of the principle of gender equality.
Regarding Directive 2011/95, which sets standards for the conditions that third-country nationals or stateless persons must meet to qualify for international protection, a uniform status for refugees or persons eligible for subsidiary protection, and the content of the protection granted, the CJEU concluded that the provision in Article 10(1)(d) applied to the case.
The decision stated that "it can be considered that women, including minors, who share as a common characteristic a genuine identification with the fundamental value of gender equality, which developed during their stay in a Member State, given the prevailing conditions in their country of origin, belong to a 'specific social group' as a 'ground for persecution' that could lead to the recognition of refugee status."
The Court also emphasized the need to observe the principle of the best interests of the minors, who had been residing in the Netherlands since 2015 and had developed their personalities and cultural values there.
This decision may have implications for similar cases, establishing the possibility that women with a distinctly Westernized personality, with a genuine internalization of the principle of gender equality, may constitute a specific social group subject to discrimination in third countries, thereby granting them the possibility of acquiring refugee status.
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The full text of the ruling is available here.
