When Gender and Nationality Are Enough for Asylum: Commentary on the AH & FN Judgment of the EU Court of Justice

Francisca Pérez-Madrid is Professor of Law and Religion at the University of Barcelona.[1]

On 4 October 2024, in the case of AH (C-608/22) & FN (C-609/22) v. Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) confirmed that gender and nationality may constitute sufficient criteria for an EU member state to grant asylum to a particular group of women. The applicants, Afghan nationals “AH” and “FN,” sought refugee status in Austria, citing the persecution of women under Afghanistan’s Taliban regime. Austria denied them refugee status, granting subsidiary protection[2] instead, based on anticipated economic and social hardship if they were to return to Afghanistan. Austrian authorities expressed doubts regarding AH’s credibility and concluded that FN did not face a genuine risk of persecution.

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International and National Responses to the Russian Orthodox Church’s Support of Putin’s War in Ukraine

Dmytro Vovk is a visiting associate professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. The following post is based on his remarks at the ICLRS 31st Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 8 October 2024.

In July 2021, Russian president Vladimir Putin published an article “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” The article, which many now consider to be a prologue to or a sign of preparation for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, contains the following passage:

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Understanding Religious Freedom: Why Does It Matter?

Nicholas Aroney is a professor of constitutional law at The University of Queensland, a senior fellow of the Centre for Law and Religion at Emory University, and a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of Law. The following post is based on his remarks during the panel “Understanding Religious Freedom: Why Does It Matter?” at the ICLRS 31st Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 7 October 2024.

We live in a time when it is especially important to understand religious freedom and why it matters. There are places today where religious freedom is not regarded as a constitutional principle either because the official policy of the state is to enforce a form of secular atheism or because the official policy is to enforce a particular religion to the exclusion of all others.

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