‘Serious harm’ characterises the nature and intensity (gravity) of interference with the rights of the person. For that interference to be ‘serious’ it must be of sufficient severity. Moreover, it cannot be any type of harm, discrimination or breach of rights. Article 15 QD specifies the scope of the relevant ‘serious harm’ by the following provisions:

These types of harm imply in themselves sufficient severity.

There is no established hierarchical or chronological order between the different provisions. If more than one of the provisions of Article 15 QD appear to be applicable, the case officer should apply the one that best corresponds to the individual case. It cannot be excluded that in some cases subsidiary protection could be validly based on more than one ground.