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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Infinite, Finite, and Definite Dignity: Reflections on the Catholic Church’s Dignitas Infinita

Vatican, Rome – Conciliazione street

In April 2024, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (the Holy See’s institution responsible for the religious discipline of the Catholic Church) published the declaration Dignitas Infinita. The document contributes to the theological argumentation of human dignity as an ontological feature of every human being and clarifies the teachings of the Catholic Church on dignity-related issues, including those traditionally the subject of the Holy See’s focus (such as family ethics, poverty, and war) and those that are virtually new (such as human dignity and digital technologies).

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Dignitas Infinita—Infinite Dignity. A Compendium of Catholic Ethics—and a Missed Chance

Ingeborg G. Gabriel is a professor emerita at the University of Vienna.

The declaration Dignitas Infinita (DI) was issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith with the explicit approval of the Pope on 8 April 2024. It had been in preparation for five years and was intended to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on 10 December 2023. Its belated publication was due to an ecclesial process of discernment described in the “presentation” at the beginning of the document.

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