CURIA - Documents 5 of 14 https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document_print.jsf?docid=131... application, including laws and regulations of the country of origin and the manner in which they are applied; 17 (b) the relevant statements and documentation presented by the applicant, including information on whether the applicant has been or may be subject to persecution or serious harm; (c) the individual position and personal circumstances of the applicant, including factors such as background, gender and age, so as to assess whether, on the basis of the applicant’s personal circumstances, the acts to which the applicant has been or could be exposed would amount to persecution or serious harm; (d) whether the applicant’s activities since leaving the country of origin were engaged in for the sole or main purpose of creating the necessary conditions for applying for international protection, so as to assess whether those activities would expose the applicant to persecution or serious harm if returned to that country; (e) whether the applicant could reasonably be expected to avail himself or herself of the protection of another country where he or she could assert citizenship.’ Article 11, which is in Chapter III of Directive 2004/83 (‘Qualification for being a refugee’), is entitled ‘Cessation’ and is worded as follows: ‘1. A third-country national or a stateless person shall cease to be a refugee if: … (f) being a stateless person with no nationality, he or she is able, because the circumstances in connection with which he or she has been recognised as a refugee have ceased to exist, to return to the country of former habitual residence. …’ 18 Article 12 of Directive 2004/83 (‘Exclusion’), which is also in Chapter III, provides in paragraph 1(a) thereof – a provision comprising two sentences which reflect the two subparagraphs of Article 1D of the Geneva Convention – as follows: ‘A third-country national or a stateless person is excluded from being a refugee if: (a) he or she falls within the scope of Article 1D 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 (HCR). 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’. 19 Article 12(1)(b) of Directive 2004/83 provides that a third‑country national or a stateless person is excluded from being a refugee if he or she is ‘recognised by the competent authorities of the country in which he or she has taken residence as having the rights and obligations which are attached to the possession of the nationality of that country; or rights and obligations equivalent to those’. 20 Article 12(2) of Directive 2004/83 states that a third country national or a stateless person is excluded from being a refugee where there are serious reasons for considering that he or she is caught by one or more of the grounds for exclusion which are set out in that provision and relate to the fact that such a person has committed ‘a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity’ (paragraph 2(a)) or ‘a serious non-political crime’ (paragraph 2(b)) or has been guilty of ‘acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations’ (paragraph 2(c)). 15/07/2021, 09:14