72 a) the disappearance of Efraín Bámaca Velásquez by agents of the Guatemalan armed forces resulted in his exclusion from the legal and institutional system of the State, denying recognition of his very existence as a human being and, therefore, violated his right to be recognized as a person before the law; and b) according to Article 1(2) of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Forced Disappearances, the phenomenon of forced disappearance is defined as a violation of the rules of international law that guarantee, inter alia, the right to be recognized as a person before the law (Resolution 47/133 of the General Assembly of the United Nations, 18 December 1992). 177. The State did not present any argument related to the alleged violation of Article 3 of the Convention. * * * 178. Article 3 of the Convention establishes that “[e]very person has the right to recognition as a person before the law.” 179. This principle should be interpreted in the light of the provisions of Article XVII of the American Declaration of the Rights and Obligations of Man, which says textually: “Every person has the right to be recognized everywhere as a person having rights and obligations, and to enjoy the basic civil rights”. The right to the recognition of juridical personality implies the capacity to be the holder of rights (capacity of exercise) and obligations; the violation of this recognition presumes an absolute disavowal of the possibility of being a holder of such rights and obligations. 180. In this respect, the Court recalls that the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons (1994) does not refer expressly to the juridical personality among the elements that typify the complex crime of forced disappearance of persons. Naturally, the arbitrary deprivation of life suppresses the human being and, consequently, in these circumstances, it is not in order to invoke an alleged violation of the right to juridical personality or other rights embodied in the American Convention. The right to the recognition of juridical personality established in Article 3 of the American Convention has its own juridical content, as do the other rights protected by the Convention115. 181. From these considerations and the facts of the case, the Court deems that the right of Efraín Bámaca Velásquez to juridical personality was not violated. XV VIOLATION OF ARTICLES 8 AND 25 IN RELATION TO ARTICLE 1(1) (RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL AND JUDICIAL PROTECTION) 115 Cf. Durand and Ugarte Case, supra note 56, para. 79.