ECRE is currently working on redeveloping the website. Visitors can still access the database and search for asylum-related judgments up until 2021.
You are here
Home ›France - CNDA, 25 November 2011, M.K., No. 10008275
International Law > 1951 Refugee Convention > Art 1C (5)
International Law > 1951 Refugee Convention > Art 1C (6)
European Union Law > EN - Qualification Directive, Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 > Art 7
European Union Law > EN - Qualification Directive, Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 > Art 11


In order to assess the change of circumstances where refugee status ceased to exist, the competent authorities must “verify, having regard to the refugee’s individual situation, that the actor or actors of protection[…], which may include international organisations controlling the State or a substantial part of the territory of the State, including through the presence of a multinational force in that territory, have taken reasonable steps to prevent persecution, that they therefore operate, in particular, an effective legal system for the detention, prosecution and punishment of acts constituting persecution and that the national concerned will have access to such protection if he ceases to have refugee status”.
The Applicant, from Kosovo, was recognised as a refugee in 1986 as a Yugoslav national. In 2010, the Ofpra – the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons/Office français de protection des réfugiés et apatrides - ceased to recognise his refugee status. In his appeal to the CNDA, the Applicant asserted that he had resided in France for 25 years, that his entire family and all his ties were there, that he had travelled to Kosovo in 2000 and 2004 and that he had feared for his life during these two trips. He stated that he could not return to Kosovo, where he is regarded as a deserter.
The Court referred to the provisions of Article 11 of the Qualification Directive and the interpretation the CJEU gave thereof in its ruling of 2 March 2010.
The Court made clear that In order to assess the change of circumstances where refugee status ceased to exist, the competent authorities must “verify, having regard to the refugee’s individual situation, that the actor or actors of protection[…], which may include international organisations controlling the State or a substantial part of the territory of the State, including through the presence of a multinational force in that territory, have taken reasonable steps to prevent persecution, that they therefore operate, in particular, an effective legal system for the detention, prosecution and punishment of acts constituting persecution and that the national concerned will have access to such protection if he ceases to have refugee status”.
In this particular case, the Court considered, first of all, that although the Applicant had secured refugee status as a Yugoslav national, his present situation had to be considered from the point of view of the authorities of the Republic of Kosovo.
Secondly, the Court considered that given the particularly significant and permanent changes that had occurred since he had secured his status (in particular Kosovo’s declaration of independence and, with the assistance of international organisations and the EU, the establishment of democratic institutions and a State subject to the rule of law), the circumstances that had justified the Applicant’s fears, based on his membership of the Albanian community in Kosovo and his commitment to the recognition of the rights of this community, in consequence of which his refugee status had been recognised, had ceased to exist.
Moreover, the Court noted that the Applicant had not put forward any compelling reason linked to previous persecution, why he should refuse to claim protection from the Kosovo authorities. Lastly, the Court considered that he had not put forward any evidence in particular as to the actors liable to expose him to persecution at present that would allow his personal and present fears to be deemed well-founded, and had not claimed that he would be unable to seek the protection of the authorities of the Republic of Kosovo.
The Applicant’s appeal was denied.