CURIA - Documents 4 of 14 https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document_print.jsf?docid=131... cornerstone of the international legal regime for the protection of refugees. 12 As is apparent from recital 10 in the preamble to Directive 2004/83, read in the light of Article 6(1) TEU, the directive respects the fundamental rights and freedoms and observes the principles recognised in particular by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’). In particular, the directive seeks to ensure, on the basis of Articles 1 and 18 of the Charter, full respect for human dignity and the right to asylum of applicants for asylum. 13 Recitals 16 and 17 in the preamble to Directive 2004/83 are worded as follows: ‘(16) Minimum standards for the definition and content of refugee status should be laid down to guide the competent national bodies of Member States in the application of the Geneva Convention. (17) It is necessary to introduce common criteria for recognising applicants for asylum as refugees within the meaning of Article 1 of the Geneva Convention.’ 14 In accordance with Article 1 of Directive 2004/83, its purpose is to lay down minimum standards as regards, first, the requirements to be met by third‑country nationals or stateless persons in order to receive international protection and, second, the content of the protection granted. 15 Article 2 of Directive 2004/83 states that, for the purposes of the directive: ‘(a) “international protection” means the refugee and subsidiary protection status as defined in (d) and (f); … (c) “refugee” means a third-country national who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group, is outside the country of nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country, or a stateless person, who, being outside of the country of former habitual residence for the same reasons as mentioned above, is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to it, and to whom Article 12 does not apply; (d) “refugee status” means the recognition by a Member State of a third country national or a stateless person as a refugee; (e) “person eligible for subsidiary protection” means a third country national or a stateless person who does not qualify as a refugee but in respect of whom substantial grounds have been shown for believing that the person concerned, if returned to his or her country of origin, or in the case of a stateless person, to his or her country of former habitual residence, would face a real risk of suffering serious harm as defined in Article 15, and to whom Article 17(1) and (2) [concerning the grounds for exclusion from subsidiary protection] do not apply, and is unable, or, owing to such risk, unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country; …’ 16 Article 4 of Directive 2004/83, which is in Chapter II (‘Assessment of applications for international protection’), sets out the conditions governing the assessment of facts and circumstances. Paragraph 3 of that article provides as follows: ‘The assessment of an application for international protection is to be carried out on an individual basis and includes taking into account: (a) all relevant facts as they relate to the country of origin at the time of taking a decision on the 15/07/2021, 09:14