Subsidiary protection is international protection for persons seeking asylum who do not qualify as refugees.[1] In European law, Directive 2004/83/EC defines the minimum standards for qualifying for subsidiary protection status.[2] The Directive was later added to with Directive 2011/95/EU, which states that uniform, European states for persons eligible for subsidiary protection and the content of the protection granted.[3]
In the European Union, a person eligible for subsidiary protection status means a third country national or stateless who would face a real risk of suffering serious harm if s/he returned to the country of origin.[1] Serious harm is defined, according to the Code of Entry and Residence of Foreigners and of the Right to Asylum, as the risk of: "(a) death penalty or execution; or (b) torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of an applicant in the country of origin; or (c) serious and individual threat to a civilian's life or person by reasons of indiscriminate violence in situations of international or internal armed conflict."[4][5]
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has a right to seek asylum from persecution.[6] The person granted refugee status, however, is defined by the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees as a person who risks being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion in his or her country of origin.[7]