Under a European directive , that refers to the provisions in the Geneva Convention , 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 can claim refugee status.

(d) "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;

1. Refugee status shall be granted to any third country national who, owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, membership of an ethnic group, 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, and to any stateless person, who, being outside the country of former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

1. Refugee status shall be granted to any third country national who, owing to 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, and to any stateless person, who, being outside the country of former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

22. Supports the inclusion of fundamentalist persecution suffered by women as a social group and owing to their gender among the reasons considered to justify asylum applications and the granting of formal refugee status; calls on the Member State governments to recognise the persecution and violations of rights suffered by women for fundamentalist reasons as 'persecution for reasons of membership of a particular social group' within the meaning of the Geneva Convention so that these women (with priority for those already resident in the EU) can be granted formal refugee status; calls for legally binding guidelines or instructions to b ...[+++]e established for the processing of such applications;

2.21. To support the inclusion of women who, as a social group and owing to their gender, suffer fundamentalist persecution among the reasons considered to justify asylum applications and the granting of formal refugee status; calls on the Member State governments to recognise the persecution and violations of rights suffered by women for fundamentalist reasons as ‘persecution for reasons of membership of a particular social group’ within the meaning of the Geneva Convention so that these women can be granted formal refugee status; legally binding guidelines or instructions are to be established for the processing of such applications.