45 216. Article 24 of the American Convention reads as follows: All persons are equal before the law. Consequently, they are entitled, without discrimination, to equal protection of the law. 217. Article 3 of the American Convention provides that every person has the right to recognition as a person before the law, a fundamental prerequisite for the enjoyment of all other basic freedoms, as it gives every individual standing before the law. The right to recognition as a person before the law has several dimensions: the capacity to exercise and enjoy rights; to undertake obligations and to bring legal action. In the travaux preparatoires of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (hereinafter the “Universal Declaration”) it was established that this right guarantees “to every human being the right 188 to exercise rights, to enter into contractual obligations, and to be represented in actions at law.” Also, it was written that the phrase personalité juridique “covers those fundamental rights relating to the ‘legal capacity’ (legal status) of a person, which are not explicitly mentioned in the subsequent articles of the 189 Declaration.” 218. In effect, Article 3 of the Convention upholds the principle that every person must be recognized as a subject of laws based solely on one’s condition as a human being. Here, the InterAmerican Court has held that: every human person is endowed with juridical personality, which imposes limits to State power. The juridical capacity varies in virtue of the juridical condition of each one to undertake certain acts. Yet, although such capacity of exercise varies, all individuals are endowed with juridical personality. Human rights reinforce the universal attribute of the human person, given that to all human beings correspond likewise the juridical personality and the protection of the Law, independently of her existential or 190 juridical condition. 219. As the Court wrote, Article 3 of the Convention must be interpreted as a function of Article XVII of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, which reads as follows: “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 juridical personality means that one can be the titulaire of rights (capacity to enjoy rights) and obligations; violation of the right to legal personality implies a repudiation of any 191 possibility that a person might be the titulaire of such rights and obligations. 220. The Commission wrote the following in this regard: The right to juridical personality is essential to the enjoyment of all basic freedoms, as this right confers recognition as a person before the law. A person can enjoy his lawful rights and duties 192 only if he has the legal capacity to be considered a person or a human being . 188 IACHR, Report No. 712/04, Merits, Case 12,527. Renato Ticona Estrada et al. v. Bolivia, paragraph 103, citing Richard B. Lillich, “Civil Rights”, in Theodor Meron, Human Rights in International Law: Legal and Policy Issues, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1988, p. 131. 189 IACHR, Report No. 712/04, Case 12,527, Renato Ticona Estrada et al v. Bolivia, paragraph 103, citing Richard B. Lillich, “Civil Rights”, in Theodor Meron, Human Rights in International Law: Legal and Policy Issues, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1988, p. 131. 190 I/A Court H.R. Juridical Condition and Human Rights of the Child. Advisory Opinion OC-17/02 of August 28, 2002. Series A No. 17, paragraph 34. See also, IACHR, Report No. 712/04, Case No. 12.527 (Merits), Renato Ticona Estrada et al. (Bolivia), October 26, 2006, paragraph 104. 191 I/A Court H.R., Case of Bámaca Velásquez v. Guatemala. Merits. Judgment of November 25, 2000. Series C No. 70, paragraph 179. 192 IACHR, Application filed with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Case of Dilcia Yean and Violeta Bosico Cofi v. Dominican Republic, July 11, 2003, paragraph 176, citing Manfred Nowak, U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: CCPR Commentary, 282.