2.2.3. Refugee Status Determination Process: Refugee Status Standards for qualifying for refugee status are enumerated in Directive 2011/95/ EU of 2011, which amends and replaces Directive 2004/83/EC of 2004. The main objective of the directive is “on the one hand, to ensure that Member States apply common criteria for the identification of persons genuinely in need of international protection, and, on the other hand, to ensure that a minimum level of benefits is available for those persons in all Member States.”343 Directive 2011/95/EU defines a refugee as follows: [R]efugee’ 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[.]344 Article 12 is the exclusion clause, which defines the conditions under which an individual may be excluded from refugee status. Most importantly for the purposes of this Handbook, article 12(1)(a) states that an individual is excluded from refugee status if: […]he or she falls within the scope of Article 1(D) of the Geneva Convention, relating to protection or assistance from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. When such protection or assistance has ceased for any reason, without the position of such persons being definitely settled in accordance with the relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, those persons shall ipso facto be entitled to the benefits of this Directive[.]345 2.2.4. Subsidiary Protection Under Article 18 of the Qualification Directive,346 persons in need of international protection who do not qualify for refugee status may nonetheless have a right to subsidiary protection in Member States if they would face a real risk of “serious harm” upon return to their country of ori­gin or former habitual residence, such as the death penalty (Article 15 (a)), torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 343 64 Council of the European Union, “Directive 2011/95/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on Standards for the Qualification of Third-Country Nationals or Stateless Persons as Beneficiaries of International Protection, for a Uniform Status for Refugees or for Persons Eligible for Subsidiary Protection, and for the Content of the Protection Granted (recast),” December 13, 2011, para. 12, http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4f197df02.pdf, Preamble. 344 Ibid., chap. 1, Article 2(d). 345 Ibid., chap. 3, Article 12(1)(a). 346 Council of the European Union, “Directive 2011/95/EU,” Article 18. Handbook on Protection of Palestinian Refugees