[1] In European law, Directive 2004/83/EC defines the minimum standards for qualifying for subsidiary protection status.
[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.
[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] A person is excluded from subsidiary protection if the European Member State believes that s/he has committed a serious crime there, is guilty of acts contrary the Charter of the United Nations[8]' article 1 and 2, or if s/he is a danger to the society, or if s/he has committed a crime against humanity.
Both the OFPRA and the CNDA have to consider specifically and systematically the right to benefit from the subsidiary protection as soon as the asylum seeker does not fulfil the legal conditions to be recognized as a refugee (as defined by first article of the 28th of July 1951 Geneva convention[11]).